MrEH and I had plans for Friday evening that involved us being in Central London - for one of the LT Museum’s “Hidden London Hangout” podcasts - but in front of a live audience. We’ve been wanting to get to one of these for a while - this is the third they have done as far as I recall, but the previous two have been on days we have already had other plans. MrEH announced well ahead of time that he intended to use the day as one of his required days of working from the office, a sensible move as otherwise he would have struggled to get into town in time after finishing his working day, so I decided I may as well travel in with him - saving myself on travel costs.
While still in the process of deciding what to do with my day, I spotted on the excellent Ian Visits newsletter email that a gallery in Bethnal Green was running an exhibition of photographs taken in London’s east end during the 1970s - from:the detail given both in the email and on a linked BBC news site article it looked utterly fascinating, so I immediately started structuring my plan around going for a look.
The gallery is on Roman Road - just a stone’s throw from where MrEH lived when we were first together in fact, and a walk along from where I elected to hop off the bus was fascinating seeing what had changed, and what was still much as I remembered.
The exhibition - A World Apart - shows the work of a dozen photographers who worked with local communities in Whitechapel, Wapping, Spitalfields, Stepney and thereabouts, documenting the changes as the continuation of the post-war drive to rebuild saw buildings torn down and new immigrants began influencing the shops and businesses. Some of the photographers lived in the areas they were working in and those they were photographing were friends and neighbours and well as subjects, meaning they could achieve a level of trust and relaxation - something which really comes across in the images.
The common link between the photographs is that they have all been exhibited previously at the time they were taken, in various spaces in the East End - theatres, laundrettes and libraries all hosted shows. This is the first time they’ve all been seen together though, and they paint a powerful picture of the time, as the communities welcomed the new Bengali & Caribbean incomers. Indeed, that integration stands out as a theme through the exhibition with black, white and brown faces seen working and playing together.
“A World Apart” exhibition can be seen at the Four Corners Gallery, Roman Road, Bethnal Green until 6th a December 2025.
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