This series of photographs, taken while I was squatting in Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel between 1973 and 1984, records a vital community of artists, homeless people and Bengali families who shared these streets with the traders, drinkers and long term residents just making the best of what there was. Thanks to the tenacity and determination of these people, many of the dignified buildings survive today, restored and still in use for housing.