Pictures of how life used to be in London’s East End half-a-century ago are up for auction to help raise cash to finish a memorial to Britain’s worst wartime civilian disaster.
A collection of black-and-white photographs showing sights and everyday life and characters from the 1960s and 70s by photographer Mike Pattison are being sold in aid of the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust.
Funds are needed to complete the £400,000 memorial the trust has put up in Bethnal Green Gardens next to the site of the 1943 disaster.
The memorial marks the 173 men, women and children crushed to death during an air raid alert trying to get down the narrow staircase into the incomplete Bethnal Green tube station which was being used as a public shelter.
Pattison’s collection, all for sale, is now on show until November 16 at Bethnal Green library, 10am-6pm Mondays to Saturdays. Some photos are also being auctioned at the library on November 14 at 6pm.
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