Around Plaistow

This collection of photographs represents a unique record of life in and around old Plaistow, principally but not entirely in the mid-1930s, which were taken by one man who grew up there, George Taylor.

A very early interest in photography led him to make prints by sunlight in the school playground at ten years of age. Later, from his early 20s until he moved away in 1939, he recorded his home streets, his family, friends and neighbours on film, in a set of pictures that now form a remarkable archive of the district at that time.

An important feature of this collection is a sequence of photographs taken at the street parties and celebrations for the Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary in 1935, many examples of which are included here. His exceptional skill as a photographer is best demonstrated in these photographs which were taken when he was still a very young man. An exhibition of some of these prints at the Newham Library in 1977 caused much interest and led to reunions of prewar neighbours and a BBC TV programme which saw the author revisiting the old streets and comparing modern Plaistow with his childhood memories and his photographs.

This book provides an opportunity for a more comprehensive and lasting photographic record of old Plaistow to be made which will be of interest to past and present residents and also to all those concerned with how things were in East London in the 1930s.