Black and White Photographs of Life in London in the 1970s

These pictures are a selection from those taken in the five years between 1973 and 1978, when Tony Bock lived in the East End working as a photographer for the East London Advertiser. “Britain in the nineteen seventies never seemed comfortable with itself,” Tony admitted to Spitalfields Life, “caught between the post-war years that hung on too long and the late twentieth century that seemed late in arriving.”

At the E1 Festival, Stepney

Train departing Liverpool St Station

In Watney Market

At The White Swan, Poplar

At J.Kelly, Pie & Mash, Bethnal Green

At The Royal Oak, Bethnal Green

Demolition at Tiller Rd, Isle of Dogs

Clown at Stratford Broadway

Saturday night out, Dagenham

Wapping Stairs

Boy with a gun and his sister, Pearl St, Wapping

Commercial Docks, Rotherhithe

Children playing in Poplar

Corner Shop, Sidney St

(Photographs copyright © Tony Bock)