Stairs to Spitalfields

The stairs below in Pauline House,  Spitalfields are rarely used as two lifts service the 17 floors. The concrete steps are mainly an escape mechanism in case of fire or a refuge for smoking youths who wish to depart overcrowded flats and engage in stairwell bonding.

Stairs in Pauline House, 1996

Limited light and utilitarian design combine at times to grace this space with an allure that steps at nearby  Spitalfields Christchurch (below) could never compete with.

Christchurch Spitalfields, 1986

The utilitarian luminosity of the Pauline House stairwell is equally a match for the staircase (below) to the first floor of the Whitechapel gallery.

Whitechapel gallery staircase, 1989

Possibly the most malevolent staircase in Spitalfields (below) engaged the bridge joining the old cobbled street Fleet Street Hill near Allen Gardens and Cheshire Street. Regrettably the iconic shortcut was sacrificed to the Crossrail project.

Fleet Street Hill staircase, 1988