First Edition 2021

Petticoat Lane, London’s most famous street market often described as Brick Lane now. Roger Taylor captures a vibrant slice of 60s London, not the wealthy swinging Chelsea set but instead the East Enders. But make no mistake the crossover between the two groups was important – Vidal Sassoon who defined the look of the generation was brought up in a tiny flat on Petticoat Lane.

Taylor describes the experience of photographing in the area,

‘These images date from late 1966 on my first real visit to London when I was introduced to Petticoat Lane which, as a lad from Manchester, completely bowled me over, both culturally and visually. The sequence represents my intuitive response to individuals and their immediate environment. The work has never been seen or published, but thankfully I kept the negatives, all of which were taken on a Hasselblad, which I borrowed from Derby School of Art. Under different circumstances, there would have been more images but 120 roll film was expensive for a student living on a maintenance grant of £300 pa’.