A Walk Around Shoreditch in the 1980s

Shoreditch

 

Shoreditch in Hackney, east London is gentrified. In the 1980s it was faded and in large parts grotty and dilapidated. Peter Marshall was there, just as Alan Denney had gone round photographing Stoke Newington at the other end of Kingsland Road during the grim winter of 1978/79. The place looked as it had been abandoned. There were rows and rows of decaying, poorly-maintained Victorian houses many of them empty. Nearby Dalston was in the words of one journalist “a faded suburb with jaunty air“, a den of thieves and derelicts.

If you stroll through Shoreditch, Dalston and Stoke Newington High Street or Church Street today it’s Planet Organic, Whole Foods and any number of ice-cream shops but in the 1980s years ago there were just innumerable empty shops many of them faced with graffitied corrugated iron.

 

Jumbo Tights, Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

Jumbo Tights, Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

 

Brick Lane Market, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets 86

Brick Lane, 1986

Shoreditch

Entrance, Curtain Rd,  1986

Cutting, Shoreditch High St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

Cutting, Shoreditch High St, 1990

Shoreditch

S Louis, Furniture Manufacturers, French Place, 1990

Shoreditch

French Place,  1987

Shoreditch

Standard Place, Rivington St, 1986

Paul St, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

Paul St, 1986

W A Hudson, Charlotte Rd, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1986

W A Hudson, Charlotte Rd, 1986

Waterson St, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

Waterson St, 1986

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980s

Shoreditch High St, 1986

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980

Scrap metal merchants, Commercial St, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets. 1980:

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980s

W Croll, Cabinet Maker, Rivington St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

The Mission, Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

The Mission, Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980s

Luna Bar, Worship St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1986

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980s

Alley off Brick Lane and Shoreditch Underground Station, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets. 1980

Shoreditch Hackney London 1980s

Old St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1987

Sun St, Shoreditch, Hackney

Sun St, Shoreditch, Hackney

Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

Window, Shoreditch High St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

Window, Shoreditch High St, 1990

B Smiler & Sons, Rivington St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1987

J Crispin & Sons, Curtain Rd, Shoreditch, Hackney 86

‘I have just enjoyed looking at the photographs on the above page which bought back a lot of great memories. I noticed that the photograph showing ‘J. Crispin & Sons, Veneers’ (Fifth pic from bottom of page) has no location details. This is/was located at 94 and 96 Curtain Road, Shoreditch – The first-floor wooden structure is still there, the last time I looked’ – thanks to reader Phil

Great Eastern St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1990

Great Eastern St, 1990

Elvisly Yours, Shoreditch High St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1986

Elvisly Yours, Shoreditch High St, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1986

Posters, Swanfield St, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets, 1990

Posters, Swanfield St, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets, 1990

hackney

Hardware Factors, Curtain Rd, New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1987

Hardware Factors, Curtain Rd, New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, Hackney, 1987

Lead Image: Cheshire Street, 1986.

Via: Peter Marshall.

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