Image Enhancements

[Garry Wroe]

Church Passage ...



And more children at play ...

[Sister Hyde]

sweeeet! church passage...hmmm no! no!! I must resist and not doze off into my daydreams!

[Garry Wroe]

The following is a series of photographs taken in Spitalfields in 1912 by Horace Warner and which featured in a recent edition of the Mail Online. I’m indebted to Ashkenaz for providing the relevant link in the ‘East End Photos’ thread.

[Garry Wroe]

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[Garry Wroe]

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[Fisherman]

So; less than a hundred years ago...!

These pictures are as beautiful as they are sad, Garry. They remind me of the picture on the cover of Fiona Rules "The worst street in London". Absolutely hearttearing.

Thanks for sharing!

All the best,
Fisherman

[prowling cat]

Nothing much I can add, but thank you for the wonderful pictures, both original and enhanced (beautifully).
Someone has already mentioned this, but some of them - the two street orphans, for example, make me think of Mrs. jellybean in "Bleak House", so worried about her mission on the Niger, but oblivious to the problems under her very nose.
These photos are stark reminders that the good old days were anything but for a very big part of the people.

[Garry Wroe]

Many thanks Fish and Cat. Speaking of which ...

[Garry Wroe]

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[Garry Wroe]

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[Garry Wroe]

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[prowling cat]

almost present day

The photos are so good, one can actually recognise the children as individuals, I don't know how to express it, they resemble modern kids - I mean, of course they do, but somehow there is an immediacy that goes to the heart, a recogniseability that trascends the way they are dressed. I don't know how to put it well, but it's rather like when I see portraits of the Rinascimento that are so good, so individual, that I recognise the faces of my greengrocer, or some colleague of mine, the ancient clothes do not distract, and the features seem to speak across the years. (I live in Italy, so probably these features are common gene pool, of course).
Perhaps someone else can explain it better, I tried. I'm afraid I haven't made myself clear, much.
The cats look quite smug, I wondered how they were fed, and then realised that there must have been a lot of rats and mice for them to feast upon.

Thanks again for such a treat, somehow the East End has been so often shown as foggy and semideserted in films, that one (well, I do, at any rate) forgets the sheer amount of life and activity endlessly going on. Focussing on prostitution and night life, the fact of children being such a beautiful, fragile and also harrowing part of it is shuffled to the back of one's perceptions.
C.

[Garry Wroe]

Thank you, Cat, for what was a most thoughtful and eloquent post. I trust that the following will be equally well received ...

[Garry Wroe]

And finally ...

[The Grave Maurice]

I love these pictures, Garry. Some very talented photographers have managed to capture the resilience and strength of the East End children (and their pets). Makes you want to hug all of them and tell them that everything will be alright...although, for many of them, it probably wasn't. It's heartbreaking. Still, thanks very much for finding and posting them.