Nobody did a street scene quite like the Edwardians. It would be wrong to get too misty-eyed for a time when many local people were allowed to starve through unemployment and forced to live in overcrowded hovels without toilets.

But for the moment let us forget the massive social injustice of the era and marvel at this view of Upton Lane, taken from the corner of Studley Road.

The lamp post on the right of the picture is a particularly elegant touch, even though it lacks a lamp.

Nevertheless it still compares favourably with the bland, functional thing standing in its place today.

Outside this lively shopping parade we can see a charming, rickety-looking display of furniture.

Further along are the low awnings of MK Moran the draper, and WA Wiedhofft's domestic stores.

German surnames were common in East London in Edwardian times.

The old County Borough of West Ham had a policy of encouraging skilled German immigrants to come and work in local factories.

Many of them anglicised their names during the First World War to avoid attracting abuse from the more bluntly nationalist members of the community.

The area has been called Upton since the mid-13th century, but it was a tiny settlement for the next 600 years.

It had just 25 houses in the mid-17th century, less than a quarter of the number at West Ham, Plaistow or Stratford.

Local historian Katherine Fry, daughter of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, wrote in 1888: "Upton consisted until recently entirely of private residences, more or less surrounded by pretty gardens and pleasure grounds."

But soon it would be fully urbanised, surrounded by relatively spacious estates built around the newly-enclosed West Ham Park.

The name "Upton Park" was first used by property developers and estate agents anxious to give the area an idyllic ring.

This shopping parade would have served the new influx of mainly middle-class families.

Although it is still structurally intact, it has not continued to flourish into the present day.

With fewer shoppers passing by, the wide pavement has been narrowed to make it easier for traffic to pass.

Only the old-fashioned signs of JG Harding's hand-made Gold Crest lampshades, high up on the side of the building, remind us of how attractive it used to be.