What can you learn about an area from its doors? An awful lot if that area is Whitechapel and your guides are Louis Berk and Rachel Kolsky.
The pair's book, simply called Whitechapel Doors, explores the history of the area through the medium of the threshold.
Berk explains where this unusual concept came from. "The idea for Whitechapel Doors came to me a few years ago while perusing the 20,000+ photographs I have taken of Whitechapel and Spitalfields. I realised I had subconsciously been taking portraits of the many wonderful and historic doorways to buildings. An idea formed in my mind to create a history of Whitechapel just using photography of the doors."
That idea expanded beyond 'just photography' to include written context by Kolsky, a Blue Badge guide whose recent book Women's London is among the best guides to the capital we've ever read.
Whitechapel Doors by Louis Berk and Rachel Kolsky is out now from Mango Books. Buy from one of London's independent book shops. All photos by Louis Berk (but captions are our own wording).
