Old images of Roman Road Market [photoessay]
We have dug out some images of Roman Road Market in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s from our local archive library. These and many other images of streets of Bow are freely available at Tower Hamlets Local History and Archives. There are some groovy images of women wearing horn-rimmed glasses and hurrying to do the weekly shop. You will see that the piles of rubbish on the Roman today are a long-established feature on our road. Scroll through and let the nostalgia begin.
Roman Road Market began as early as 1843, when it was illegal ‘but withstood several attempts to close it down’. It was recorded as a fully fledged market in 1887 by Booth, who toured the area with the local policeman and reported that ‘Roman Road…is one of the great market streets in London. Things to be bought of every sort, even patent leather shoes. Some demand for good quality as well as for cheapness’. The market is the heart of Bow, and ‘going down the Roman’ has been a tradition for generations.
The market used to be open for long hours: there are oral accounts of trading going on until 10 pm well into the 20th century. Market days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but shops are open all week. The Old Ford and Bow Traders and Shopkeepers Union was inaugurated in 1910 to promote the welfare of costermongers and traders as well as those they lived alongside, and there have been traders groups ever since.
Roman Road Market 1999 ©Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Photographs courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives with special thanks to photographers Mrs C. Ely, Mrs H. Bazalgette, Robert Anthony, Kenneth Newman, F. Holingbery and the Borough Architect and Planning Department.
If you like this, you might also like our colour photos of Roman Road Market.
Well done lovely photos of the old roman road market the real roman road market not like it is today it used to be packed not like now
Will be showing these to my father in law Dave Eastwell as he used to have a greengrocers shop & stall there & often talks about all the people he knew.
Lovely photos. Are there any more in the archives please?
Great photos great memories
My nan used to live in McKenna House back in the late eighties, early nineties. which is at the back of Roman Road market. I used to love going down the Roman on a Saturday. I used to shop at Chizel’s men’s boutique and get my mum shoes from Shoe Boys. The clothing designs and quality of goods in the shops back then was first class. After nan passed away in 1993, I stopped going down the Roman so regularly. Now I find it has changed quite a bit, and appears to have lost it’s sparkle from the bygone era. I’ll forever treasure the fond memories though.
Hi, do you happen the remember a mens clothing shop called “BLASS” it was my dads and would love to hear from someone who remembers shopping there.
Does aanyone remember or have photos of vinces cafe and ice cream globe road the other end of roman road used to be green street
Does anyone have a photo of my late parents carpet stall jack and Millie?
Some great photos here. Lovely memories. I remember my mum taking me shopping on Saturdays, we get our fruit and veg from the stalls, our tins and meat from safeways (or was it called presto) and then we go to woolworths. I might be able to wangle my way into some sweets or even a small toy if I was very lucky. That was between 1981-1985. There used to be a wimpy near the top but we never went because it was deemed expensive. We was poor but happy. The people alittle rough but caring. The photos makes me miss those older times. To make up for it, I might go have pie and mash at Kelly’s this week. The smell and taste will never change.
Won’t be going down “the Roman” in a hurry again. All mobile phone accessory shops, take-aways and convenience stores now and very down-at-heel. I remember Ashby’s the butchers (keep your eye on the meat), Roman Discs, owned by Ian Beckingham, the upmarket Sun Valley and down-trodden cheaper bingo near where the library is now, Mister Byrite, Rumbelows and of course the Wimpy Bar. Not forgetting Caters supermarket, the food division of Debenhams, later a pub now Poundland. The second-in-command biscuit man from near the old library is still around but now works Brick Lane on a Sunday and is about 40 years older.
Hi. Do you happen to remember a mens clothing shop called “BLASS” in the 80s? It was my dads and would to love to hear from someone who remembers if.
Excellent photos took me back to my youth days , I lived at hackney wick my mum & me used to walk into Vicky park gate then walk down by the swings &play park go through the gate then walk down to Roman road market then my mum used look at the stall once she bought what she wanted then take me down to the pie mash shop & by me one pie mash & liquor while she had out side the shop jelly eels, then we would walk back through Vicky park back to hackney wick we done this every week I was about 8 years old at the time I’m now 75 but I remember it so well.