Looking at photos taken in mid-70s London during the Winter of Discontent (the photo of men warming themselves on the street with a meagre fire fed with cardboard
boxes, stood out) I overheard one of the Hairy Bikers say: ‘God, it looks
Victorian!’ We were at Tate Britain’s photography exhibition: ANOTHER
LONDON, International Photographers Capture City Life 1930-1980. The images ranged from foggy romanticism or
destitution to funny and touching; the usual class consciousness and displays of British spirit. One photo showed a young married woman, on her
knees, scrubbing her doorstep. Who does that now and who thinks their neighbourhood
status is connected to their doorstep?
In the spirit of Victorian-looking poverty pictures, I offer
this, taken a few years ago from a bus as it made its way through Peckham.
