Rediscovering Spitalfields: Markets and Memories of East London
During the 1980s I often saw this woman pushing her shopping trolley through Spitalfields. I admired her quiet determination as she made her way around the Sunday market in search of bargains. The trolley carried her purchases, but it also seemed to steady her steps.
The 1980s brought profound social and economic change to the East End, yet I suspect that, for her, material circumstances had changed very little over the course of her life. I could only respect this elderly, physically frail woman. Her heavy overcoat, headscarf and sensible shoes spoke of a generation shaped by wartime austerity. In the East End of the 1980s, many older residents were among the last to remember the Blitz, the hardships of post-war poverty, and the area’s long-established Jewish working-class communities.
When I moved to the East End in 1982, the tower block where I lived was home to many elderly Jewish residents, each with a fascinating story to tell. The woman who lived on the floor below me was always impeccably turned out and made the finest pastries I have ever been offered by a neighbour. As the years passed, the pastries gave way to curry as the block gradually became home to mainly Bangladeshi families. If I was lucky, a knock on the door often meant a plate of delicious food from a generous neighbour.
In the early 1980s, Spitalfields stood on the threshold of transformation. Much of the old East End remained poor and semi-derelict, but redevelopment and gentrification were already beginning to reshape the area. I hope these photographs preserve something of that vanished world before it disappeared almost entirely.
