Click here order a signed copy of The Gentle Author’s ON CHRISTMAS DAY for £10

Daniel Lewis & Son Ltd, Hackney Rd

As you can see, illustrator Eleanor Crow shares my love of ironmongers. “The inventive displays and signage of hardware stores make these my favourite shopfronts,” she confessed to me, “I have only to see the serried ranks of brooms, pots, latches and pans to be reminded of some useful item that needs purchasing immediately.” Alas, three favourites have closed recently but we trust the others will be fulfilling our architectural ironmongery and plumbing requirements for years to come.

C W Tyzack, Kingsland Rd

Bernardes Trading Ltd, Barking Rd

Bradbury’s, Broadway Market

Chas Tapp, Southgate Rd

Emjay Decor, Bethnal Green Rd

General Woodwork Supplies, Stoke Newington High St

Diamond Ladder Factory, Lea Bridge Rd

Farringdon Tool Supplies, Exmouth Market

Histohome, Stoke Newington High St

KAC Hardware, Church St

Leyland SDM, Balls Pond Rd

KTS the Corner, Kingsland Rd

Mix Hardware, Blackstock Rd

City Hardware, Goswell Rd

Travis Perkins, Kingsland Rd

SX, Essex Rd

Illustrations copyright © Eleanor Crow

You may also like to see Eleanor Crow’s other East End illustrations

Eleanor Crow’s East End Cafes

Eleanor Crow’s East End Bakers

Eleanor Crow’s East End Fish Shops

and read about more ironmongers

At London’s Oldest Ironmongers

Receipts from London’s Oldest Ironmongers

Photos from London’s Oldest Ironmongers

At General Woodwork Supplies

At KTS the Corner

At MG Ironmongery & Hardware

At City Hardware

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND PAGE & CONTRIBUTE

S Keil, Hessel St, 1972

A generation ago, Hessel St and the surrounding streets were the focus of a long-established Jewish community. In 1972, David Hoffman documented the last days of some of the characterful shops and small businesses that once filled this corner of the East End.

M Rappaport, Fishmonger, Hessel St

“There was a man who sold sarsaparilla at tuppence a glass from a window in his sweet shop at the top of Cannon St Road until ten o’clock at night. One day, this man was murdered and the police found a box of money under his bed – forty or sixty thousand pounds – he had been saving all the tuppences for forty years. They bricked up the window afterwards.” – Setven Berkoff

Hessel St

D. R. Zysman’s pickles & delicatessen shop, Hessel St

L Herman, Koser Butcher & Poulterer, Hessel St

P Lipman, Kosher Poultry Dealer, Hessel St

Solly Grannatt in the doorway of his jewellers’s shop at 17 Black Lion Yard

The Express Shoe Repair Shop, Hessel St

The Express Shoe Repair Shop

The bulldozer moves in on the kosher poulterer’s shop in Hessel St

Photographs copyright © David Hoffman

John Allin’s paining of Hessel St

You may also like to take a look at 

Alan Dein’s East End Shopfronts

Consider supporting us as a Patron and receive a signed fine art print by Doreen Fletcher, signed photographic prints by David Hoffman and Sarah Ainslie, plus an inscribed copy of my forthcoming book.

I believe in the primacy of books because – even if the web gets wiped out tomorrow – they will endure. Publishing is not an easy task, yet I am passionate to do it when I find stories that I want to cherish, that I know people will love, and that deserve to be dignified in our time and for posterity.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND PAGE & CONTRIBUTE

Stoke Newington Old Church

It is my great delight to publish this selection of splendid recent works by painter Nicholas Borden, seen publicly here for the first time today, and glowing with rich jewel-like tones and densely-populated, intricate compositions.

The Golden Heart

Liverpool St Station

Christ Church

Brick Lane Market

Sclater St Market

In Sclater St

Brick Lane Market

In Sclater St yard

Columbia Rd Market

Columbia Rd Market

Arnold Circus

Gasometer by the Regent’s Canal in Bethnal Green

Regent’s Canal at Victoria Park

View from the artist’s kitchen, under snow

Paintings copyright © Nicholas Borden

Email nicholasborden100@yahoo.co.uk to enquire about any of these paintings

You may also like to take a look at

Twenty New Paintings by Nicholas Borden

Nicholas Borden’s Lockdown Paintings

Nicholas Borden’s Latest Paintings

Catching Up With Nicholas Borden

Nicholas Borden, Artist

Nicholas Borden’s East End View

Nicholas Borden’s Winter Paintings

Nicholas Borden’s Spring Paintings

Nicholas Borden’s New Paintings

Nicholas Borden’s Recent Paintings

Consider supporting us as a Patron and receive a signed fine art print by Doreen Fletcher, signed photographic prints by David Hoffman and Sarah Ainslie, plus an inscribed copy of my forthcoming book.

I believe in the primacy of books because – even if the web gets wiped out tomorrow – they will endure. Publishing is not an easy task, yet I am passionate to do it when I find stories that I want to cherish, that I know people will love, and that deserve to be dignified in our time and for posterity.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND PAGE & CONTRIBUTE

Thank you for all you do to document and celebrate the human history of the East End. Hugh Valentine

I am so looking forward to the publication of these books – I always read your blog and really enjoy your writing. Good luck! Sarah Lewington

All the very best of luck with this venture. Dina Fawcett

To support GA, the authors, artists, illustrators & photographers in the production of more beautiful books. Hellen Martin

May you and Spitalfields life, blog, community and books continue to inspire, flourish, stir and resist..thank you. Silvervanwoman

Good luck. I’ve got quite a few of your books and will look forward to more. Alison Pilkington

I have great admiration for The Gentle Author. TGA works incredibly hard and deserves all the support that we can give. Tim Sayer

Valuable historically and personally memorable for different aspects of the East End to be recorded, visually and orally so the streetscape, cultural vitality and diversity of voices are not lost. Jude Bloomfield

The daily blog from Spitalfields Life is life affirming. Best wishes with the publishing venture. Kate Amis

The Gentle Author brings great enjoyment to me every morning. Lynn MacKay

Looking forward to all three books – especially the mosaics, scattered like stardust, and free for all to enjoy…as all great art should be. Josephine Eglin

Dear Gentle Author, I am a great admirer of Tessa Hunkin’s work and would like to support the publication of your book about her and her mosaics. Many thanks for the work you do for so many and the interesting stories you share with all of us readers. Best of luck with this and warm crispy autumn wishes, Matilda Moreton

Good luck with the publication fund raiser. I loved working with Sarah Ainslie on various Spitalfields Life pieces, and I’m excited for her work, and the others, to be published in book form. Rosie Dastgir

I love the books! Good luck! Mary Winch

Love the books – hope the funding project succeeds. Edward Gillman

Good luck with your worthy venture. Keith Brennan

Amazing books … keep going. Sophie Alderson

Precious publications from a very special place … Oh here’s to Spitalfields lives ! Sophie Thompson

I am a great-granddaughter of man born in Bethnal Green. Proud to be an East Ender! Pamela Henning

Wonderful projects. Sensorinet

Cracking beautiful relevant stuff !! Bonne chance xx Oliver Lazarus

I love your books, which would not be published anywhere else. Long may you continue. Melanie McGrath

Books open worlds, make great companions, are lovely gifts, and keep our minds from growing stale. And they ask for little in return! Long live books! Jennifer Newbold

So pleased you’re re-launching SL Books, which are all beautifully produced and feature the work of such excellent photographers, artists and writers. Julia Meadows

Good luck – your books are brilliant. Joan Isaac

Today we preview David Hoffman’s book:

A PLACE TO LIVE: ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971-87

David Hoffman’s bold, humane photography records a lost decade, speaking vividly to our own times. Living in Whitechapel through the 70s, David documented homelessness, racism, the incursion of developers and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vital photographic testimony of resilience.

“I was born in the East End, but my upwardly-mobile parents moved away to the green fields of Berkshire and then back to the safe suburbs of South London. By the time I drifted back to Whitechapel as a young man in 1970, I found myself in a world I had never imagined.

I encountered bomb sites still rubble-strewn from the war, smashed windows, empty shops, rubbish-scattered streets and many lost, desperate people wandering aimlessly, often clutching a bottle of cheap cider or meths. Then I was broke, unemployed and clueless, and it was scary to imagine a future amidst this dereliction.

I found a room in a damp, rickety slum in Chicksand St and began to explore, soon discovering the Sunday market in Cheshire St where I picked up a warm coat and a blanket for next to nothing. The market was surreal, with people sitting on the kerb hoping to sell a couple of old shoes and a broken razor. Other stalls were stacked with the debris of house clearance – carpets, furniture, pictures, kitchenware and books – whole lives condensed and piled up for sale.

Yet I found the market inspiring. Unregulated and chaotic, the unifying emotion was of hope bubbling through desperation. Even at the very lowest end of poverty, these people thronging the streets had got up early, pulled together a carrier bag of junk and headed off, sustained by the possibility of seeking a few pounds to get them through the next day or two. No matter how badly things had turned out, they were not giving up. It was this hope-filled resilience that buoyed me up and showed me a way forward.”

David Hoffman

Photographs copyright © David Hoffman

Click here to book for my tours through July, August and September

As London’s oldest market prepares to move out of the City, Photographer Orlando Gili has been down at Smithfield, documenting the last generation of butchers to work at this ancient site

Greg Lawrence Junior and Greg Lawrence Junior Junior, Owners of G Lawrence Wholesale Meat

‘I arrived at Smithfield in the dead of night to photograph London’s renowned meat market which is set for permanent closure. The last pubs had long closed and it was a few hours before tube station shutters were wrenched open.

Walking towards the market, you are met by a wave of sound, beeps and wheels dragged over tarmac, bearing the weighty chunks of meat wrapped in plastic. Emitting at a different frequency is the grumble from a line of white lorries and vans, punctuated by shouts and low pitched chatter. Smithfield is very much alive and in full operational mode at this time. Within minutes of arriving, I am dressed in white overalls and deep inside the bowels of the market, photographing blood splattered butchers, and dodging lines of dead animals hanging from hooks.

Experiencing Smithfield at night is to uncover a secret parallel world that operates in the shadows while the rest of London sleeps. There is a sense of frenetic energy and unpredictability. Forklifts whizz past men in long jackets hunched over neatly stacked boxes, punching numbers into calculators and fielding phone calls. Inside the tall Victorian halls, behind large glass windows, carcasses are hacked into pieces at literally breakneck speed. It is a physical analogue space with a masculine atmosphere. There is a strong sense of camaraderie and familial spirit, many of the businesses are family run.

I returned on early mornings in winter to develop a portrait series that celebrates the people behind the market. Night workers provide an under-appreciated role in modern cities. They risk significant damage to their health to meet the demands of the 24/7 city. According to a long-term US study of nurses, night shift workers are up to 11% more likely to die early compared to those who work day shifts.

The historic market will soon relocate to a £1 billion high-tech behemoth in Dagenham. The closure of Smithfield ends over 800 years of trading meat in Central London as part of a wider trend to sanitise inner cities with less palatable aspects of urban life kept out of sight.’

Orlando Gili

Mark, Chicken Salesman

Horatio, Driver

Moro, Butcher

Harry, Shopman

Simon, Salesman

Ian, Chicken Salesman

Greg, Beef Salesman and Sean, Cashier

Jonny, Butcher

Elijah, Salesman

Tony, Retired Boxer, Trader and Restaurant Distributor

Roger, Fork Lift Operator

Dave, Salesman

‘Pig Ear Tony’, Pig Meat Salesman

Charlie, Salesman

Aaron, Butcher, Marcus, Salesman and Mark, Shopman

Luca, Production

Adam, Butcher

Kye, Unloader

Pav, Butcher

Russel, Butcher

James, Sales Manager

Grant, Butcher

Photographs copyright © Orlando Gili

You may also like to read about

Smithfield’s Bloody Past

Joan Brown, The First Woman at Smithfield Market

Sarah Ainslie at Smithfield Market

David Hoffman at Smithfield Market

Our walks have been awarded a Travellers’ Choice award by Trip Advisor after an unbroken run of over eighty five star reviews

Click here to book THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOURS for July & August

This is George Gladwell (1929-2020) selling his Busy Lizzies from the back of a van at Columbia Rd in the early seventies, drawing the attention of bystanders to the quality of his plants and captivating his audience with a bold dramatic gesture of presentation worthy of Hamlet holding up a skull. George began trading at the market in 1949 and it is my delight to publish this selection of his old photographs.

There is an air of informality about the flower market as it is portrayed in George’s pictures. The metal trolleys that all the traders use today are barely in evidence, instead plants are sold from trestle tables or directly off the ground – pitched as auctions – while seedlings come straight from the greenhouse in wooden trays, and customers carry away their bare-rooted plants wrapped in newspaper. Consequently, the atmosphere is of a smaller local market than we know today, with less stalls and just a crowd of people from the neighbourhood.

You can see the boarded-up furniture factories, that once defined Bethnal Green, and Ravenscroft Buildings, subsequently demolished to create Ravenscroft Park, both still in evidence in the background  – and I hope sharp-eyed readers may also recognise a few traders who continue working in Columbia Rd Market today.

Over the years, many thousands of images have been taken of Columbia Rd Flower Market, but George Gladwell’s relaxed photographs are special because they capture the drama of the market seen through the eyes of an insider.

“I arrived in this lonely little street in the East End with only boarded-up shops in it at seven o’clock one Sunday morning in February 1949. And I went into Sadie’s Cafe where you could get a whopping great mug of cocoa, coffee or tea, and a thick slice of bread and dripping – real comfort food. Then I went out onto the street again at nine o’ clock, and a guy turned up with a horse and cart loaded with flowers, followed by a flatback lorry also loaded with plants.

At the time, I had a 1933 ambulance and I drove that around  to join them, and we were the only three traders until someone else turned up with a costermonger’s barrow of cut flowers. There were a couple more horse and carts that joined us and, around eleven thirty, a few guys came along with baskets on their arms with a couple of dozen bunches of carnations to sell, which was their day’s work.

More traders began turning over up over the next few months until the market was full. There were no trolleys then, everything was on the floor. Years ago, it wasn’t what you call “instant gardening,” it was all old gardeners coming to buy plants to grow on to maturity. It was easy selling flowers then, though if you went out of season it was disappointing, but I never got discouraged – you just have to wait.

Mother’s Day was the beginning of the season and Derby Day was the finish, and it still applies today. The serious trading is between those two dates and the rest of the year is just ticking over. In June, it went dead until it picked up in September, then it got quite busy until Bonfire Night. And from the first week of December, you had Christmas Trees, holly and mistletoe, and the pot plant trade.

I had a nursery and I lived in Billericay, and I was already working in Romford, Chelmsford, Epping, Rochester, Maidstone and Watford Markets. A friend of mine – John –  he didn’t have driving licence, so he asked me to drive him up on a Sunday, and each week I came up to Columbia Rd with him and I brought some of my own plants along too, because there was a space next to his pitch.

My first licenced pitch was across from the Royal Oak. I moved there in 1958, because John died and I inherited his pitches, but I let the other four go. In 1959, the shops began to unboard and people took them on here and there. That was around the time public interest picked up because formerly it was a secret little market. It became known through visitors to Petticoat Lane, they’d walk around and hear about it. It was never known as “Columbia Rd Flower Market” until I advertised it by that name.

It picked up even more in the nineteen sixties when the council introduced the rule that we had to come every four weeks or lose our licences, because then we had to trade continuously. In those days, we were all professional growers who relied upon the seasons at Columbia Rd. Although we used to buy from the Dutch, you had to have a licence and you were only allowed a certain amount, so that was marginal. It used to come by train – pot plants, shrubs and herbaceous plants. During the war, agriculture became food production, and fruit trees planted before the war had matured nicely. They sold masses of these at the Maidstone plant auctions and I could pick them up for next to nothing and sell them at Columbia Rd for two thousand per cent profit. Those were happy times!

In the depression at the end of the nineteen fifties, a lot of nurserymen sold their plots for building land because they couldn’t make it pay and it made the supply of plants quite scarce. So those of us who could grow our own did quite well but, although I did a mail order trade from my nursery, it wasn’t sufficient to make ends meet. Hobby traders joined the market then and they interfered with our trade because we were growers and kept our stock from week to week, but they would sell off all their stock cheap each week to get their money back. I took a job driving heavy haulage and got back for Saturday and Sunday. I had to do it because I had quite a big family, four children.

In the seventies, I was the first to use the metal trolleys that everyone uses now. My associates said I would never make it pay because I hocked myself up to do it. At the same time, plants were getting plastic containers, whereas before we used to sell bare roots which made for dirty pitches, so that was progress. All the time we were getting developments in different kinds of plants coming from abroad. You could trade in these and forget growing your own plants, but I never did.

Then in the nineties we had problems with rowdy traders and customers coming at four in the morning, which upset the residents and we were threatened with closure by the council. We had a committee and I was voted Chairman of the Association. We negotiated with the neighbours and agreed trading hours and parking for the market, so all were happy in the end.

It’s been quite happy and fulfilling, what I’ve finished up with is quite a nice property – something I always wanted. I like hard work, whether physical or mental. I used to sell plants at the side of the road when I was seven, and I used to work on farms helping with the milking at five in the morning before I went to school. I studied architecture and yet, as a job, I was never satisfied with it, I preferred the outdoor life and the physical part of it. Having a pitch is always interesting – it’s freedom as well.”

Albert Harnett

Colin Roberts

Albert Playle

Bert Shilling

Ernie Mokes

The magnificently named Carol Eden.

Fred Harnett, Senior

Herbie Burridge

George Burridge, Junior

Jim Burridge, Senior

Kenny Cramer

Lou Burridge

Robert Roper

Ray Frost

Robert Roper

George Burridge

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/07/02/george-gladwells-columbia-rd-market/feed/ 9 196310 https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/30/anthony-cairns-small-shops/ https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/30/anthony-cairns-small-shops/#comments Tue, 30 May 2023 12:32:48 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195943 Meet me next Sunday on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral and we will spend the afternoon walking eastward together through the square mile to explore the wonders and the wickedness of the ancient City of London.

Click here to book for my next City of London walk on Sunday 4th June

Today I present Antony Cairns’ ethereal portfolio of small shops, created using nineteenth century Vandyke Brown process, and evoking those commercial premises which exist as receptacles of collective memory for the communities they served.

The first picture is of The Handy Shop, Tony’s first local shop when growing up in Plaistow, and the last picture is W.F.Arber & Co Ltd in Roman Rd, of which my friend Gary Arber was the proprietor.

The Handy Shop,  Ruskin Ave, E12

M.J. Evans, Warren St, W1

Unknown shop, Mile End, E1

Unknown shop, Bonsor St, SE5

Unknown shops, unknown street

Unknown shop, Copenhagen St N.1

Unknown shops, Morning Lane, E8

Unknown shop, Oswin St, SE11

Unknown shops,  Hackney Rd, E2

Fishmonger, Commercial Rd, E1

Unknown shop, St Pancras Way, NW5

Printworks, Blackfriars Rd, SE1

Gari’s, Northwold Rd, N16

George Harvey, Bougourd Chemist &  Droys, Rochester Row, SW1

Gricks Jellied Eels, Rosebery Ave, Manor Park, E12

Arber & Co Ltd, 459 Roman Rd, E3

Photographs copyright © Antony Cairns

You may also like to take a look at

Antony Cairns’ East End Pubs

and these other photographs of shops

A Nation of Shopkeepers by John Claridge

At the Shops with Tony Hall

The Shops of Old London

Beigel Shop, Brick Lane

Eleanor’s richly-hued watercolour paintings of favourite East End Bakers set my stomach rumbling just to look at them . “I live in a bakery-free part of the East End and popping out for decent bread usually involves a cycle ride,” she admitted to me, “So I’m always on the lookout for good bakers and I wish we still had a proper bakery in every neighbourhood like they do in the rest of Europe.”

In common with Eleanor, I also plan my routes around the East End using the bakers’ shops as landmarks – so that I can take consolation in knowing the proximity of the nearest one, just in case the desire for something tasty from the bakery overtakes me.

“One of my regular bus routes has The Baker’s Arms as its final destination and close by is a beautiful set of almshouses, built by the London Master Bakers’ Benevolent Institution in the nineteenth century,” Eleanor informed me, elucidating bakers’ lore,  as she took the first bite of a freshly baked Hot Cross Bun still warm from the oven.“Luckily people always want bread, so the traditional bakeries can still thrive alongside new businesses – but I do recommend sampling the goods a few times in each one, just to be sure which is the best…”

Robertsons, Lea Bridge Rd

Novelty Bakery, East Ham

Jesshops, Newington Green

Rinkoff’s, Vallance Rd

Goswell Bakeries, Canning Town

Akdeniz Bakery, Stoke Newington

Star Bakery, Dalston Lane

Fabrique Bakery, Hoxton

Raab the Bakers, Essex Rd

Percy Ingle, Lea Bridge Rd

Anderson’s, Hoxton St

Daren Bread, Stepney Green

Illustrations copyright © Eleanor Crow

NEW FOR 2023: CLICK HERE TO JOIN ME FOR A TOUR OF THE CITY OF LONDON

In his History of the Cries of London, Ancient & Modern of 1884, Charles Hindley reused many woodblocks from earlier publications and this series below dates from perhaps a century earlier.

Of all the sets I have published in these pages, these prints best illustrate the necessity of the Cries, since in most cases it would not be possible for customers to tell at a distance what sellers had in their baskets so, as well as announcing their presence, the Cries declared the wares on offer. There is a particular animated quality to this set, tracing the footsteps of the hawkers as they trudge the narrow streets, negotiating the puddles and the filth – and it makes you realise how much walking was involved, lugging produce round the city on foot.

Newcastle Salmon! Dainty fine Salmon! Dainty fine Salmon! Newcastle Salmon!

Yorkshire Cakes, who’ll buy Yorkshire Cakes? All piping hot – smoking hot! hot! hot!

Buy my Flowers, sweet Flowers, new-cut Flowers! New Flowers, sweet Flowers, fresh Flowers, O!

Buy green and large Cucumbers, Cucumbers, green and large, Cucumbers, twelve a penny!

Buy Rosemary! Buy Sweetbriar! Rosemary & Sweetbriar, O!

Come and buy my Walking Sticks or Canes! I’ve got them for young and old.

Buy my Cranberries! Fine Cranberries! Buy my Cranberries! Fine Cranberries!

Buy my fine Gooseberries! Fine Gooseberries! Threepence a quart! Ripe Gooseberries!

Pears for pies! Come feast your eyes! Ripe Pears, of every size, who’ll buy?

One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns!

Worcestershire Salt!

Buy Great Eels!

Buy Great Plaice!

Buy Great Smelts!
Buy Great Whiting!

Hats or Caps! Buy, Sell or Exchange!

Bread & Meat! Bread & Meat!

Hot fine Oatcakes! Hot fine Oatcakes!

Fine Oranges & Lemons! Oranges & Lemons!

I sweep your Chimney clean, O! Sweep your Chiney clean, O!

Buy my Diddle Dumplings, hot! hot! Diddle, diddle, diddle, Dumplings hot!

I have Hot Codlings, Hot Codlings!

You may also like to take a look at these other sets of the Cries of London I have collected

John Player’s Cries of London

More John Player’s Cries of London

Faulkner’s Street Cries

Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London

More Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London

Kendrew’s Cries of London

London Characters

Geoffrey Fletcher’s Pavement Pounders

William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders

London Melodies

Henry Mayhew’s Street Traders

H.W.Petherick’s London Characters

John Thomson’s Street Life in London

Aunt Busy Bee’s New London Cries

Marcellus Laroon’s Cries of London

William Nicholson’s London Types

John Leighton’s London Cries

Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana of 1817

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana II

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana III

Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders

More of Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders

Victorian Tradesmen Scraps

Cries of London Scraps

New Cries of London 1803

Cries of London Snap Cards

Julius M Price’s London Types

Adam Dant’s  New Cries of Spittlefields

Tony Bock took these pictures of Watney Market while working as a photographer on the East London Advertiser between 1973 and 1978. Within living memory, there had been a thriving street market in Watney St, yet by the late seventies it was blighted by redevelopment and Tony recorded the last stalwarts trading amidst the ruins.

In the nineteenth century, Watney Market had been one of London’s largest markets, rivalling Petticoat Lane. By the turn of the century, there were two hundred stalls and one hundred shops, including an early branch of J.Sainsbury. As a new initiative to revive Watney Market is launched this spring, Tony’s poignant photographs offer a timely reminder of the life of the market before the concrete precinct.

Born in Paddington yet brought up in Canada, Tony Bock came back to London after being thrown out of photography school and lived in the East End where his mother’s family originated, before returning to embark on a thirty-year career as a photojournalist at The Toronto Star. Recalling his sojourn in the East End and contemplating his candid portraits of the traders, Tony described the Watney Market he knew.

“I photographed the shopkeepers and market traders in Watney St in the final year, before the last of it was torn down. Joe the Grocer is shown sitting in his shop, which can be seen in a later photograph, being demolished.

In the late seventies, when Lyn – my wife to be – and I, were living in Wapping, Watney Market was our closest street market, just one stop away on the old East London Line. It was already clear that ‘the end was nigh,’ but there were still some stallholders hanging on. My memory is that there were maybe dozen old-timers, but I don’t think I ever counted.

The north end of Watney St had been demolished in the late sixties when a large redevelopment was promised. Yet, not only did it take longer to build than the Olympic Park in Stratford, but a massive tin fence had been erected around the site which cut off access to Commercial Rd. So foot and road traffic was down, as only those living nearby came to the market any more. The neighbourhood had always been closely tied to the river until 1969 when the shutting of the London Docks signalled the change that was coming.

The remaining buildings in Watney St were badly neglected and it was clear they had no future. Most of the flats above the shops were abandoned and there were derelict lots in the terrace which had been there since the blitz. The market stalls were mostly on the north side of what was then a half-abandoned railway viaduct. This was the old London & Blackwall Railway that would be reborn ten years later as the Docklands Light Railway and prompt the redevelopment we see today.

So the traders were trapped. The new shopping precinct had been under construction for years. But where could they go in the meantime? The new precinct would take several more years before it was ready and business on what was left of the street was fading.

Walking through Watney St last year, apart from a few stalls in the precinct, I could see little evidence there was once a great market there. In the seventies, there were a couple of pubs, The Old House At Home and The Lord Nelson, in the midst of the market. Today there are still a few old shops left on the Cable St end of Watney St, but the only remnant I could spot of the market I knew was the sign from The Old House At Home rendered onto the wall of an Asian grocer.

I remember one day Lyn came home, upset about a cat living on the market that had its whiskers cut off. I went straight back to Watney St and found the beautiful tortoiseshell cat hiding under a parked car. When I called her, she came to me without any hesitation and made herself right at home in our flat. Of course, she was pregnant, giving us five lovely kittens and we kept one of them, taking him to Toronto with us.”

Eileen Armstrong, trader in fruit and vegetables

Joe the Grocer

Gladys McGee, poet and member of the Basement Writers’ group, who wrote eloquently of her life in Wapping and Shadwell. Gladys was living around the corner from the market in Cable St at this time.

Joe the Grocer under demolition.

Frames from a contact sheet showing the new shopping precinct.

Photographs copyright © Tony Bock

You may like to see these other photographs by Tony Bock

Tony Bock, Photographer