Preparing for assignment 4

I have been thinking about my next assignment recently.  As I live in London I thought about focusing on a specific place or borough as suggested in the brief.  At first I considered choosing where I live in Enfield but this I though would be too easy an option.  I then considered the Lee Valley area but after some initial research I found that it was just too big an area and would be too big a project for this assignment.  However, I feel it may be something I could focus on in the future.

It was after a visit to home in Ireland and a conversation with my mum that my thoughts turned to Hackney.  Last week I attended a talk by Tom Hunter which increased my interest in the area.  The east end of London is a common stomping ground for street photographers but from what I have seen they usually tend to focus on Brick Lane and surrounding areas.  I thought what about Hackney - the real Hackney.  Or should I say what Hackney means to me.

My parents came over from Ireland in the 1950s and started married life in the east end.  I'm not sure why this area was chosen perhaps because of more affordable rents and less anti-Irish sentiment.  During that period it is reported that signs with the words 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish' were found in B&B windows and Irish Need Not Apply was often on job advertisements.  My mother says she never came face to face with this and I wonder if this was because she lived in the east end where there is a tradition of immigration.

My dad worked in the construction industry and I wonder if he was more exposed to this sentiment.  If he was he never shared it with my mother.  Unfortunately he died when I was young so I have no way of ever finding out.

In the late 1970s the opportunity to return to Ireland came about and my father jumped at the chance.  I was the only one in my family to be raised there and have not experienced living in the east end like they did.

In 2005 I got my first job in the public sector at City and Hackney PCT.  I was based in Kingsland Road which is in Hackney and is close to boundary of the City of London.  My job brought me into contact with people that lived and worked in Hackney and one thing I got from them was a sense of pride in their community.

For my assignment I would like to explore London's east end in particular Hackney.  I would like to visit the places where my parents first lived, where they shopped and the places they socialised.  I would like to portray a sense of place from the information I have got from my mum.  This could also be part of a journey to getting to know more about my dad and the life he lived that I know little or nothing of.