Hackney, 1970s–1980s: Photographs by Wayne Waterson

My name is Wayne Waterson. I was born in 1958 near Victoria Park. In 1963, my family and I relocated to Hackney, where I attended school and lived for the next 50 years. After graduating from Shoreditch Comprehensive, I took on various jobs that people from a working-class background with no A-levels and few prospects often do, including factory work, jobs in the print trade, and working in shops and market stalls.

David Bailey

I began taking photos at 14 and loved it for the sense of freedom it gave me. Additionally, I idolised David Bailey because he was a working-class kid who had made something out of himself. This inspired me, and in the late 1980s, I applied for a photography course. I had no idea if I would be accepted, but I had nerve, a big mouth, and confidence, and I talked my way into a foundation course at The London College of Printing. Later, I studied film and have been a casting director for the past 38 years.

This is the first photograph that I took. It was taken circa the late 1960s at Riverside Mansions in Wapping, and it’s of my family. I was fascinated when my grandad had this developed and showed what I had shot. He later bought me my first camera, a little Box Brownie.

Hackney 1960s-80s

Between the 1960s and 1980s, Hackney was a world unto itself. Nobody came in from outside the borough for fear of the actual violence that had to be navigated daily, even by those who lived there.

Hoxton was quite a poor place in the seventies, with little money for anything other than the essentials. It was common to see kids with no shoes or looking unwashed. As everyone was in the same boat, no one seemed to mind or care.

"It's hard to believe these days, but not many people seemed to take photos of individuals who are not either family members or at parties. Therefore, people were often happy and excited to have their picture taken." - Wayne Waterson.

The Lion Club

Hoxton was different from the playground of the middle classes or fashionistas as it is today. There were no clubs, bars, or much of anything really, just youth hangouts like The Lion Club or the many pubs that littered the streets. This meant you had to make your own fun. Along with forming a pop group, I picked up a camera and took photos of the streets and its people.

Brick Lane

Brick Lane and Spitalfields back in those days were pretty run-down, with a high number of homeless people on the streets, often drinking window cleaner or other horrible concoctions. It was not a place you would want to be after dark; there was often fighting on the streets, and you had to be careful taking photos as you would get screamed at and chased down the road. It felt like Victorian London at times. Homeless people were commonly referred to as hobos, tramps, or vagrants back then — strange days indeed.

Brick Lane Market

The market itself, however, was the most fantastic market for bargains and the one place where I would love to invent a time machine. You would see the weirdest and strangest things down there, all of which could be bought for pennies. The first time I ever saw a bear and a tiger cub was at Club Row, and most of my record and music memorabilia collections started here. It was a place I would go to every Sunday morning for over 20 years before they destroyed it with hipster bars and high-end retail shops. Dreams were bought here.

Conversations

Another strange thing was that people would hang around and sell jewellery, such as watches, gold and silver rings, etc. It was very covert but on the open streets. I never knew if they were stolen goods, people selling their only worldly possessions, or just an excuse to make some extra money and converse with others. You would see the same people around for ages, and then they would suddenly vanish.

You would see people down on their luck selling their possessions on the street. Nobody charged them, so they often turned up with a box, tip it over, and start selling. This guy in the above photo was once a Teddy Boy and was driven to sell his drape jacket. There were a lot of sad faces around that market.

Priced Out

I photographed the area from about 1974 to 2000, capturing the streets of Hoxton, Shoreditch, and Brick Lane. However, by the late 1990s, the streets no longer felt like ours. Many people had been moved on or priced out. Factories had been transformed into commercial studios or expensive flats, and youth clubs had disappeared. While most of London experienced gentrification, Shoreditch and Hoxton appeared to be the most affected. I wasn’t interested in photographing hipsters. In 2015, I left Hoxton for Ramsgate, where I still take photographs.