Lawrence Brand

SETTING UP THE ROMAN

‘SETTING UP THE ROMAN’ – Roman Road & Hewison Street – 2025 – Lawrence Brand

I’ve wanted to paint a scene of Roman Road in Bow for ages because not only is it a great place to buy your fruit and veg (Nil’s is my favourite!), but it’s also such an interesting story of the East End of London and the changes it’s seen over the last hundred years.

It was once the real bustling heart of the area, but as shopping habits changed over the last few decades it fell into decline and struggled to compete for shoppers’ attention. These days the @romanroadtrust does a great job of promoting and building community with the aim of regenerating the whole Roman Road area, so check them out if you’d like to learn more about it.

With services like Amazon Prime and supermarket deliveries now being so common though, the market traders and small businesses along the road face fresh challenges to stay afloat. There’s loads of interesting new shops and stalls always appearing though, and my hope would be that we see Roman Road and its market continue to become more of a magnet for the area again.

So if you haven’t been to the market for a minute, maybe it’s time to head back ‘down the Roman’!

A detail crop taken from ‘SETTING UP THE ROMAN’ – Roman Road & Hewison Street – 2025 – Lawrence Brand
A detail crop taken from ‘SETTING UP THE ROMAN’ – Roman Road & Hewison Street – 2025 – Lawrence Brand
A detail crop taken from ‘SETTING UP THE ROMAN’ – Roman Road & Hewison Street – 2025 – Lawrence Brand