The History Press published my first book in September 2010. Titled LONDON'S EAST END a 1960s album is a collection of photographs which capture the gritty reality of life in the swinging sixties.

In 2012 London's East End Then & Now was published, my book shows the drastic changes which have taken place in the east end since the 1960s.

My latest book published in June 2014 titled an East End Album is a hard back book with all my favourite photographs with many never before seen images.

The first exhibition of my 60s photographs was held in July 2009 at the Red House Museum Christchurch Dorset.
My exhibition in the heart of the East End at THE HUB in Star Lane Canning Town E13 and at The Gate in Forest Gate is now closed.

The exhibition moved on to Stratford Circus during May & June 2012, it will now continue to travel around the borough of Newham over the next 12 months. In May 2013 my exhibition moved to Stratford Library, this is a new concept by the borough of Newham in conjuction with Rosetta Arts.

 

My latest book published by The History Press in January 2022 titled "East London A 1960s Album" includes previously unpublished photographs

 

The photographs in this book capture the gritty reality impact on the working-class Cockney. East Enders were preoccupied with other concerns: widespreadpoverty, poor housing, industrial unrest, racial tension . . .

The area proved fertile ground for news-gatherers, among them Steve Lewis, destined to become a distinguished national newspaper photographer. In the 1960s, he covered Newham and surrounding boroughs for the local press and picture

agencies. Equipped with a Nikon camera, he operated by the news desk mantra, ‘Chase the story, get the faces.’The following pages feature a selection of his assignments, ranging from neo-fascist intimidation of immigrants to the

appalling squalor of ‘halfway homes’. of life in East London during the ‘Swinging Sixties’. As the images graphically illustrate, the pop revolution and the advent of flower power had little discernible. On quiet days, Lewis focused on the disappearing vignettes

of street life: the milkman straining under the weight of his Edwardian handcart; the rag-and-bone man plodding the streets with his horse-drawn waggon; the bicycle-borne totter with sign proclaiming, ‘Complete Homes Purchased’.

Many of the locations in which Lewis worked have changed beyond recognition. Tower blocks supplanted swathes of Blitz-scarred terraces; the Docklands were recast as the capital’s alternative commercial hub. Now the site of the 2012 Olympics

offers new vistas. As the old fabric of the East End was consigned to memory, so were many of its traditions. Here is a unique glimpse of the way it was . . .