All Mix Blog

Thanks to the ever excellent Spitalfields Life for bringing the work of Homer Sykes to our attention. We suggest that you check out his site to gain an appreciation of his excellent documentary photography, the pictures here are merely portions of larger photos. The top photo shows a factory worker in Bradford , 1983. Directly above is an image of a lady working in Salts Cotton Mill , Saltaire, 1981. Images from ' The Way We Were, England 1968 - 1989 ' by Homer Sykes

'We don’t want to modernise. We don’t want to go modern, we’re not a heel bar. We’re going back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. There’s a lot of people bringing vintage shoes and we can take them apart and put them back together again. There’s nothing we can’t do to a pair of shoes here.' Ken Hines, cobbler at Well Heeled, Bethnal Green, London E2. Quote from this piece from Spitalfields Life on the work of cobblers in the area. As the tag from many a reputable cobbler reads: ' Shoes worth wearing are worth repairing .' Image from Spitalfields Life