Moving chairs

During the 1980’s you could find a wide range of furniture for sale in and around Brick Lane. The Sunday market could easily supply a house with all of its furniture needs. As the market closed it was even possible to find abandoned items that could be carried home and used. Much of the furniture you could find then would now be on sale at inflated prices in ‘retro’ shops.

Where I live there is an unofficial but highly effective furniture recycling scheme in operation. If I want to get rid of a piece of furniture then I will just leave it on the landing outside my flat. After a few days it will disappear into a neighbours flat. I noticed recently that a cupboard I abandoned 10 years ago reappeared for a few days on the landing outside our flat.

If you move into an empty flat the three essentials you need are a bed, chairs and a cooker. Years ago it was possible to get all of these for very little or no money at all from the Sunday market in Spitalfields.

This man has found a comfortable abandoned chair from which to view the proceedings of the Sunday market. He is joined by a little girl holding an apple who has fixed her gaze in the same direction of the man. I recall they were watching two men arguing. The argument facilitated this photograph.