Just Looking
The Independent Shopkeepers Of The Gloucester Road
An exhibition by Mark Rowe and Sean Malyon
Mark Rowe and Sean Malyon were kind enough to showe their exhibition at the Golden Lion on Saturday 20th September, as part of the GRAB launch.
Here you can read about the exhibition and see some examples from it.
Please click on an image to see a larger version.
It is 5am on Saturday on the Gloucester Road. The shutters are still fastened on the shop fronts and there's a few beer cans and bottles scattered along the kerb edges. The large residential community that adjoins the road slumbers on unaware that, even at this sleepy hour of the day, the business of running the shops that serve the area has already begun…
Mike Russ, the grocer, got out of bed at 3.15am in order to go to the fruit and vegetable market when it opened at 5am. He is joined there by Anna Tenbroeke, the florist, seeking the freshest roses from the flower market.
Around 5.30am the smell of baking bread from the Breadstore starts to drift along the high street and berths in your nostrils. Between 6.30am and 7.30am the traders begin to arrive in the street to unload their goods. At 9am Vincenzo Noto, the barber, opens his doors. By mid-afternoon the 1,000th croissant will have come out of the oven at the Breadstore.
There's a journalistic adage that goes like this: "There's a story in every house and shop in the country." This is certainly true of the Gloucester Road. One shop owner has run 13 marathons, another was involved in a pioneering human rights case, another couple washed up in Bristol after fleeing the Pinochet regime in Chile. What they have in common is individuality and ingenuity – which is unsurprising because, to run your own business, you certainly need to live on your wits and back this up with huge reserves of self-belief and stamina.
There are many fascinating shops along the Gloucester Road, each with its own story. However, this has been a self-funded project and because of that we have limited ourselves to the shops you see here.
We would love to see the story of the Gloucester Road produced in a book. If you are able to help us do that, or if you just have a question about this exhibition, please get in touch.
Mark Rowe is a journalist specialising in social affairs, wildlife and the environment. He is a former staff writer for the Independent on Sunday, to which he continues to contribute regularly. He also writes for the Daily Telegraph and a range of other titles, including BBC Wildlife and Geographical magazine.
Email: Mark@MarkRowe.eu
Sean Malyon is a commercial and editorial photographer whose work has been published in many magazines including BBC Gardens Illustrated, BBC History and BBC Countryfile. He also works for corporate clients.
Email: sean@seanmalyon.co.uk
Web: www.seanmalyon.co.uk