Learning New Things About London

By Joel Schalit

It was a first for London. That is, the London I grew up in.

Exiting a Jewish bakery in Golders Green, an elderly, Ashkenazi man in sweatpants and a New York Knicks T-shirt stopped me and asked for money, in Hebrew.

“Lo,” (No) I responded. “Enli kessef,” (I have no money,) I told him.

How he knew I was an Israeli, I’ll never figure out. Perhaps he was a tourist and couldn’t speak English. We were in a Jewish area, after all.

I chuckled as I walked away. These are exactly the sorts of cultural details I savour being able to recount, as a journalist.

This wasn’t just the first time I’d encountered an Israeli begging in the UK. It was the first time I’d encountered a Jewish person doing so in Europe.

Even though I had come to the neighbourhood to take photographs, this short exchange epitomised why I find London so rich for documentary journalism.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t looking for interviews, I knew I was going to get the photos I’d come all the way from Italy for.

Starting in my former home of Brixton and working my way north to Walthamstow, where I was staying, I captured the London I know best over four days.

My goal was to get just enough images to finish a London street photography book, part of a five-volume series I’ve been working on, about the cities I’ve lived in.

Instead, I walked away with nearly a hundred. Go to the photos section on The Battleground website. The first three pages cover London.

Photographs courtesy of Joel Schalit. All rights reserved.