This is in a way the most memorable photograph – a child who is prematurely an adult who will soon go out to work in a factory or a wash-house and then will have her own brood of children. On the other hand her grandchildren, born in, say, the 1940s, will have a much, much better life. Even if one thing this girl’s generation had that has vanished now – a fantastic camaraderie. Cf. Michael Young and Peter Willmott’s Family and Kinship in East London. We only had room for five photographs but there are more on the Spitalfields Life website and in the Spitalfields Nippers book (we have two copies left in the shop).