“My photographs of the derelict shopfronts record the last moments of the Jewish community in the area – the bustling world of the inter-war years had been moved into the suburbs, and the community that stayed behind was less identifiable. In the nineteen eighties they were just hanging on, some premises had been empty for more than five years. Like a mouthful of broken teeth, a boxer’s mouth that had been thumped, with holes where teeth once were.”
- Alan Dein, Spitalfields Life
…
All pictures (c) Alan Dein
Thank you to Alan Dein, Spitalfields Life, and Lucy Inglis, Patrick Baty, and Nick Wright.
thanks for these photos – really very beautiful and poignant
I love these and I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has a thing for derelict shop fronts!
pictures are really great, with their own history! thank you!
Beautiful – and sad all at once! So wonderful to have them recorded here…thank you!
Thank goodness there are people out there who think to record this sort of thing before it is gone. What is striking is the sheer variety of shops and trades in such a small area; something else sadly not to be seen now…..
You can still find many of those places on Google Maps streetview, well worth checking out to compare then and now..