The East End in Colour 1960–1980 gathers David Granick’s photographs of post-war East London, a place recorded here across Stepney, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Bow and the surrounding streets and waterways. Published by Hoxton Mini Press in 2018, the book presents material drawn from the collections of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives: images preserved for decades before being brought together in this volume.

Its historical value lies partly in the interval it observes. These are neighbourhoods still carrying the visible marks of wartime bombing, yet already approaching the substantial social and physical changes that would reshape the East End. Granick’s camera attends to the ordinary fabric of that moment—streets, buildings, industrial edges, waterways and the people who inhabit them—rather than treating the district only as a landmark or a symbol.

The use of colour is central to the book’s character. Made on Kodachrome at a time when black-and-white photography remained the norm, the images possess a particular warmth and descriptive directness. Colour here is not simply atmospheric; it records surfaces, clothing, painted signs, brickwork and weather with an immediacy that gives the archive unusual texture. The photographs retain the evidence of a lived environment while also revealing Granick’s sensitivity to composition and the quiet drama of everyday space.

For collectors of documentary and regional photography, the book is significant as both a coherent photographic monograph and a carefully preserved record of a changing London. Its importance does not depend on nostalgia alone. The combination of Granick’s sustained attention, the distinctive colour process, and the archival stewardship of Tower Hamlets makes this 128-page hardcover a focused account of an East End on the cusp of transformation.