Tim

Tim
Brown, a driver on the London Underground’s Central Line,
spent his spare time photographing the city’s financial centre and
transport hubs, including the Docklands area just before developers
seized control of this vast industrial wasteland.

Created during his spare time, Brown’s previously unpublished
photographs stand as a unique and fascinating glimpse into one of

London’s most radical periods of transformation.

His work – presented here as if following a train journey
navigating the farther reaches of East
London and heading towards the centre of town – emerged on
Flickr about 10 years ago during the first flush of social media
photo repositories. They represent a prodigious photographic survey
of the clearance of the world’s largest dockland complex, and
creation of a new transport system that would serve as a foundation
for regeneration and renewal.

Brown’s deadpan urban landscapes combine a cinematic scope with
a nostalgia for a fast-disappearing world, a world of physical
toil, industry, invention, drink and ordinary life about to be
replaced – with almost indecent haste – by offices and dormitories
for those employed in the service and financial economy.

The East End in Colour 1980-1990 by
Tim Brown is published by Hoxton Mini Press.