London

Apples and pears: Johnny Craven on his stall

The real Pete Beale
Johnny Craven
Age 61, fruit and veg seller at Broadway Market, E8
‘I work on the stall 12 hours a day. I’m up at 3am, I’m on the stall at 8am and I work through till 3pm. It’s nothing exciting and the hours are too long. You don’t get a social life and you can’t go out at night because you have to be up so early; it’s why people won’t come into the job any more. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be working on the stall . I wouldn’t say that I enjoy selling fruit and veg, but a job is a job. I have been working this stall on the same pitch for the past 40 years. My dad started the business ten years before that. The greengrocer is the backbone of any market. The market is busy now on Saturdays, but to be honest, I don’t take much notice of the other stalls, I’m too busy working. Feature continues

‘The market has changed a lot over the years and most of the shops down this street are different. Shops like the baker’s have been pushed out and replaced by a load of delis. Eating habits have changed and I’m selling things like butternut squash and mangos, stuff I never would have sold before. I haven’t got a clue what people think of the East End, but they come and support the stall and that’s what matters.’

Artist Sanchita Islam with one of her works

The artist
Sanchita Islam
Age 33, visual artist, Brick Lane, E1
‘I first came here in 1994, when I won Miss Bengali. It was completely different then, more of a Bangladeshi ghetto. I wasn’t inspired. Then I came back in 1999, the year I turned professional as an artist. It was a big year for British Asians: Talvin Singh won the Mercury Prize, the ‘zerozerozero’ exhibition was on at the Whitechapel and there was a big Bangladeshi festival. I set up Pigment Explosion because I was doing a lot of live art events around Brick Lane and the East End. I had my first solo show on Dray Walk, but the area has changed dramatically since then. There were lots of crazy shops then with, like, guinea pigs running across the floor. Now it’s packed with new places like the Hookah Lounge. The demarcation lines have intensified. The young trendies just go straight to Dray Walk and the young Bangladeshis walk past on their way to the market. People talk about multiculturalism, but it’s more cultural juxtaposition.

‘The main customers for the prostitutes around here – mostly white crack addicts – are Bengali men. They’re probably having unprotected sex with them and with their wives, and those women won’t go to a clinic to get themselves checked out. There are Bengali girls having anal sex to protect their virginity and at the same time they’re trying to maintain the façade of having close-knit families. But if you open your mouth you get into a lot of trouble. I get flak because I wear fishnets or skirts and show my legs, but I say just because you wear a hijab and pray five times a day, does that make you a good person? My parents taught me that to be a good Muslim you just have to be a good human being.

My work is about dispelling stereotypes and fear. The youth here are very disaffected; they feel villified by the press, and that’s why I wanted to make my next film about Bengali and Somali youth in Brick Lane. I long for an open dialogue.’
For details of Sanchita Islam’s projects visit www.pigmentexplosion.com.