What East London looked like in the 1960s
- Text by Niall Flynn
- Photography by David Granick, courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library, Archives
Last year, when photographer Chris Dorley-Brown was invited to examine the Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, he stumbled upon thousands of old colour slides belonging to local, East End photographer David Granick.
Taken between the late 1950s and 1980, the photos – untouched, unseen and unpublished – warmly captured the post-war streets of Stepney, Whitechapel and Spitalfields, at a time when monochromatic depictions were the norm. Galvanised by the discovery, Dorley-Brown registered as a volunteer at the facility and quickly set to work scanning and organising the collection.
“The collection has about 3,000 slides going back to the fifties,” explains Dorley-Brown, “but they have been well preserved. Many had been unseen for fifty years or more.”
The result is The East End in Colour 1960 – 1980, a bittersweet love letter to a bygone London, made up of Granick’s distinctive images. Spanning a period that opens with the post-war boom and concludes with the first signs of Thatcherism, the book, published by Hoxton Mini Press, encapsulates a critical period in the city’s history: a London on the cusp of change.
“The East End is well documented photographically, [but] nearly always in monochrome,” Dorley-Brown continues. “Those images have defined our perspective of the period: stark, foggy and loaded with political agitation and unrest.”
“Granick takes a step back. Shooting in colour, we are presented with a very different matrix of information. Colour does that, it’s a different language. It’s really astonishing how few colour images survive from that era. They have a modern sensibility to them – they are minimal, topographic.”
In his work, Granick – who died in 1980, aged 67 – entangles the old world with the new. From the swaggering vibrancy of the Mile End high street to the distinct loneliness of the docklands, there’s a strength and spirit to the work that illustrates East London as it once was. Through the photos, the East End of then is – for a moment, at least – brought back to life.
“They are the pictures of an insider, with an emotional but reserved response. What he has left is unique: a tribute to a lost paradise.”
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
The last days of St Agnes Place, London’s longest ever running squat
Off the grid — Photographer Janine Wiedel spent four years documenting the people of the Kennington squat, who for decades made a forgotten row of terraced houses a home.
Written by: Isaac Muk
How Japan revolutionised art & photography in the ’60s and ’70s
From Angura to Provoke — A new photobook chronicles the radical avant-garde scene of the postwar period, whose subversion of the medium of image making remains shocking and groundbreaking to this day.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”
Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The lacerating catharsis of body suspension in Hong Kong
Self-Ferrying — In one of the world’s most densely packed cities, an underground group of young people are piercing their skin and hanging their bodies with hooks in a shocking exploration of pain and pleasure. Sophie Liu goes to a session to understand why they partake in the extreme underground practice.
Written by: Sophie Liu
What we’re excited for at SXSW 2026
Austin 40 — For the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, we are heading to Texas to join one of the biggest global meetups of the year. We’ve selected a few things to highlight on your schedules.
Written by: Huck
In photos: The boys of the Bibby Stockholm
Bibby Boys — A new exhibition by Theo McInnes and Thomas Ralph documents the men who lived on the three-story barge in Dorset, giving them the chance to control their own narrative.
Written by: Thomas Ralph
