David Granick was a relatively unknown photographer who lived in Stepney in the East End for the whole of his life. When he died in 1980, he left behind a huge collection of 35mm colour slides, all carefully catalogued by date and location – which turned out to be vital as so much of the East End has changed in the intervening 40 years. The collection was acquired by Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive and rediscovered many years later by a local photographer, Chris Dorley Brown. The collection forms the backbone of this beautiful book.

If you are familiar with the area it’s an absolute gem, and if you are not its an entre into a world that was then disappearing fast – whether it was the last of the bomb sites, to a still-operating Port of London, R Mazin & Co on the Whitechaple Road to Leon Elgrod standing proudly outside his shop in Black Lion Yard, Granick captured the characters and feel of the real East End.

I came across the photos by chance in 2018, working on a project upstairs in the archive which coincided with the launched of this book of David Granick’s photos.

Gaby M

128 pages

Colour

Cloth spine

16.46×1.83×20.12

Greyscape Price £13.00

RRP £16.95

Photos David Granick