"The Road to Barking, a sentence with a ring to it," declares David Bailey, "It should be a road to the East End because that is what this book is all about." Born and bred in the East End, Bailey has returned to visit and photograph his home turf again and again over the decades: "I've watched it slowly fade with time, from a city being bombed in the Blitz to a smoking ember of what it once was." Road to Barking is Bailey's latest portrait of the East End, specifically the diverse borough of Barking and Dagenham, described by the leader of its council Darren Rodwell as "the last bastion of working-class London where traditional Cockney mingles with over 120 languages from around the world." From buskers, flower-sellers and butchers to snow-dusted stone angels in a cemetery and abandoned boats on the edge of the Thames, from yawning passengers on the Tube to police officers and punks and all in between-Bailey's focus is simultaneously on anything and everything, his vision loving and democratic.

David Bailey, born in London in 1938, is one of the most successful photographers of his generation; his career, in and beyond photography, spans over 60 years. Bailey's books with Steidl include Bailey's Democracy (2005), Havana (2006), NY JS DB 62 (2007), Is That So Kid (2008), Eye (2009), Delhi Dilemma (2012), Bailey's East End (2014), Tears and Tears (2015) and Bailey's Naga Hills (2017).