Youth of Yesterday is an exhibition featuring photographs taken of young people in Bethnal Green during the 1970s.

These photographs were taken by photographer Philip Cunningham. In the mid-1970s Philip was a youth worker at Oxford House while studying art at Ravensbourne College of Art. While a student, Philip became interested in photography and Oxford House had a fully equipped dark room and was home to Tower Hamlets Arts Group. Philip took hundreds of photographs of local people at a time when Bethnal Green was seeing great change. These photographs capture daily life, friendship, streets, and youth culture in the late 1970s. Most of these photographs haven’t been seen in over 40 years and many local people may even recognise themselves or their family members in the photographs.

The exhibition is located in Oxford House’s cafe and is free.

You can browse even more photographs by clicking here.