The East End in Colour, 1960-1980 (Vintage Britain 1)

A great little historic photo-book of an area of London's East End. The book has a good written introduction to David Granick who created the photos, the context of the area at the time, along with a good reproduction of the 45+ year old colour transparency film they were produced on. Chris Dorley-Brown who has edited the collection for the book has done a great job of re-producing the photo's, with seemingly accurate captions as well as un-obtrusive retouching. I was particularly taken with the comparison images of locations, on adjoining pages, taken from similar spots with years between them. Some Amazon reviews have complained about the quality of photo reproduction, however this is in part explained in the introduction and retains, I feel, the nature of the film, Kodachrome 64, as well as providing atmosphere to the images.

This book is a must-have for those who know the East End.It has many high quality colour photos of Spitalfields, Brick Lane, Whitechapel, Commerical Road and a bit further afield into Stepney and Shadwell.What is so excellent about this book is the contrast between the derelict and run-down nature of the area as it was photographed in the 1960's and 1970's, with the shopfronts of the dwindling Jewish community and the still existing world war two bomb sites, and how the Brick Lane area is now, with it's fashion boutiques and tourist spots.A stunning example of the effect of gentrification.Anyone who goes clubbing in the East End now should read this, for an insight as to how it looked just 40 years ago.There is a brief introductory text. All photos are labelled but have no commentary, and they do not need it, for the shots are well lit, well composed and the subject matter is poignant.A triumph of a book, useful for historical record or coffee table browsing alike.

Lovely little hardback of evocative images. Slightly worried by negative reviews, but I thought it was well designed and am glad I bought it.

I bought this as a gift for my Dad who was born in Stepney, and worked within Tower Hamlets until he retired. It's a great book, and perfectly captures the period in images taken with contemporary film. The paper stock used is of a very high quality, and despite what some other reviewers have said, it's not that small, and for me, the white space is a blessing, rather than a curse. It's a beautiful book, and for anyone with any ties to the area from that time, it's a lovely piece of history.

Bought this for my uncle who has lived in Tower Hamlets since the 60's/70's or so. He absolutely loved the book and called it "his best ever gift". Im sure it brought back a lot of memories of him growing up in the area and we got to go through some of the book together as he shared stories from areas he visited or even lived near in the book.

I must point out that the book measured 8" x 6 1/2"; it's very small. My fault, I should have checked the book's measurements before I purchased it. I would have reasonably thought, if it is a book full of photographs, the book would naturally be of an A4 size. would it?. That said, each photograph shown, all in colour, is very sharp and of high quality, however, some pages were left blank, I wondered why. Whilst I'm disappointed with mainly the small size of the book, I'm fairly happy with the book having bought it at a reduced price from Amazon.

A beautiful book, with engaging photography and the print quality as well as how it's produced - really make the pictures come alive!

Was bought as a gift and the recipient, who grew up in the East End around this time, loved it. A real trip down memory lane. Only slight disappointment being that it felt a bit padded out with quite a few blank or almost blank pages. That said, a perfect coffee table book.