Anti-racist skinheads pose in doorways in their Doc Martens. Towering industrial chimneys are toppled at the plunge of a blasting machine. Silhouetted figures fish for their tea in the Limehouse Basin.
This captivating collection of photographs from the 1970s and 80s captures an East End that was on the cusp of great change, and is barely recognisable today.
It's the cumulative work and passion of five photographers — and was previously on display at an exhibition the School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University.
'Down the Lane' is the work of Tom Hunter, who snapped passers-by while he had a stall on Brick Lane from 1989 to 1990.
Hunter says: "I had moved into a squat with an old mate, Josh and we started selling bric-a-brac down 'The Lane'... These were no places for the faint-hearted, the bargains were there for the taking but you had to be quick with your small change and know what you wanted. The 'feeding frenzy' was over in half an hour and with lamps, 501s and records securely stuffed in rucksacks, there was just enough time for a 'cuppa' before the cycle to the next venue to commence battle again.
"At the end of the day it was back to the squat to lay out our goods and compare trophies — what would sell, what you would keep for yourself."
In the mids 1970s, Diane Bush was working with EXIT — a collective, which harnessed photography to contribute to positive social change — when she created 'East End'.
Remembers Bush: "The group’s first project was to photograph the area immediately before its transformation from a former working class docklands community to one for the upwardly mobile with converted warehouse apartments and chic bars."
The work was subsequently published in the 1974 book, Down Wapping.
'London Docklands' saw Mike Seaborne capture seismic shifts in the east End through the 1970s and 1980s, as the industrial landscape was toppled chimney by chimney.
Says Seaborne:" The country’s shift from being an industrial powerhouse to a largely service-based economy has had the most profound impact on both the landscape and the make-up of our society. This is something that we are still struggling to come to terms with and if my photographs serve to give pause for thought about what we have lost then I will have succeeded in my ambition.
"For most of us, memory is more important than history."
Brian Griffin's 'The Broadgate Development' project commented on economic shifts in the 1980s, as local borough borders were re-drawn and the City spread with the deregulation of the financial markets. Griffin honed in on the development of Broadgate, which now occupies 32 acres within the City of London.
Says the photographer: "I documented the entire course of the development from pitching and planning to completion. As new methods of fast construction were pioneered on the project, I responded to these innovations with an experimental photographic approach that engaged the subjects as participants in the story.
"I saw the workmen as the true heroes of the project and wanted to celebrate their vital contribution through a particular stylistic approach, one which has subsequently been described as 'Capitalist Realism'."
'Street Portraits' by Syd Shelton — a photographer well known for his documentation of the Rock Against Racism movement — is described as an 'ongoing 45 year conversation with people of the East End'.
Says Shelton: "For many years I lived in the area and used the street as a portrait studio. All the subjects agreed to be photographed and I continued to work in the neighbourhood up until the pandemic hit.
"I would regularly wander the streets, looking for people who could add to the ongoing story of East End life."
