Four Corners' autumn exhibition captures a unique moment of change in London’s East End.

These ground-breaking photographs give a unique insight into an East End that is both recognisable and vanished. An area whose identity has been defined by centuries of migration, this exhibition celebrates its strong community spirit which is ever more important today.  

Brought together for the first time, these rarely seen images document a now-disappeared world. Bengali migrants live side-by-side with elderly Jewish shopkeepers and artisans, dockers socialise in Wapping’s clubs and pubs, and neighbours and children celebrate at a raucous, multicultural Stepney festival.

But the photographs reveal streetscapes and communities in upheaval. Desolation hangs over the soon-to-be demolished streets, the dock cranes stand lifeless over empty quays awaiting speculative redevelopment. Amid this apparent wasteland a different East End was coming into being. New migrant communities were creating a space for themselves as economic decline led to the displacement of earlier neighbourhoods.

A young generation of photographers were drawn to record ordinary people’s lives at this moment of rapid transition and to advocate for social change. Their exhibitions at the tiny Half Moon Gallery attracted people to view images of themselves and their neighbours. At a time when photography was unrecognised by the art world, these photographers mounted ‘guerrilla’ exhibitions in launderettes, on estate walls, and even on portable sandwich boards. They were part of a flourishing community arts scene that gave a voice to local people, including pioneering shows at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

A World Apart features remarkable work by Ron McCormick and the Exit Photography group - Nicholas Battye, Diane Bush, Alex Slotzkin, and Paul Trevor - alongside images by Ian Berry, John Donat, David Hoffman, Jessie Ann Matthews, Dennis Morris, and Ray Rising.

With many thanks to Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, Hackney Museum, and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Image credit: Child playing in a tenement block courtyard, Whitechapel or Wapping, around 1972. © David Hoffman