1950s:
A corner in Clerkenwell, London


Accident, daytime 1957


Accident in the rain



Accident at night, 1959


Clerkenwell Italian parade, 1950s



Trolley buses, 1950s


Firemen at Victoria Dwellings, 1950s


Have a Guinness when you’re tired 1


Colin O’Brien sees his childhood view for the first time in fifty years


‘When, as a boy, Colin O’Brien lived with his family in the top floor flat of Victoria Dwellings, Clerkenwell, London, a recurring problem caused all the traffic lights at the junction to turn green at once. Colin leant out of the window with his box brownie camera and took these photographs and other scenes from his window’

- Spitalfields Life

1956-1975:
Tractor Girls of Red China













“From the early 1950s, the female tractor driver was one of the most frequently seen symbols of Chinese socialist modernity. Known as the nüjie diyi (女界第一) model workers, the ‘female-kind-first’, they were part of the group of ‘the first’ women to be trained in work involving heavy machinery. She represented the group of new productive members of society that had been proletarianized and had broken out of the confines of domestic work.”

- Chinese Posters

1930:
The models for American Gothic





“American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood. The figures were modeled by the artist’s dentist and sister.”

- Wikipedia

c. 1905:
The Desert Queen





“The “Desert Queen” sailing on Rosamond Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The Desert Queen was build and used by miners to cross three miles of dry lake.”

1931-1932:
Proposed Desert Crossing Vehicle



‘For the safe crossing of the desert of Central Asia.’

1838:
Queen Victoria’s Coronation Ring



“The royal goldsmiths made the ring for the wrong finger of the Queen, thinking it should go on the little finger. Unfortunately the Archbishop forced it on her ring finger and Queen Victoria had to soak her hand in iced water after the ceremony”

- Royal Collection

1941:
Bomb damage to 23 Queen Victoria Street during the Blitz



“The Salvation Army International Headquarters stood on Queen Victoria Street. It was photographed as its facade fell to the ground. The night raid of 10 May 1941 was the most severe attack London had sustained throughout the Blitz.

Countless documents were lost in the bombing of these headquarters, but some charred and water-stained records were rescued. These included the personal files of army officers, and the founder William Booth’s diaries and correspondence.

Police Constables Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs took this photograph after the area had been given the ‘all clear’ and it was reasonably safe to approach.”

- 20th Century London

(c) City of London Police

1940s:
Drinking tea in the Blitz

1939-1945:
Bomb crater garden



“Victory Gardens. Where the Nazi’s sowed death, a Londoner and his wife have sown life-giving vegetables in a London Bomb crater. Official British photo.”

- Office of War Information

1957:
Miss Atomic Bomb



“Copa Room showgirl Lee Merlin poses in a cotton mushroom cloud swimsuit as she is crowned Miss Atomic Bomb 1957 photograph. Above-ground nuclear testing was a major public attraction during the late 1950s, and hotels capitalized on the craze by hosting nuclear bomb watch parties, which usually included the dubbing of a chorus girl as Miss Atomic Bomb. Merlin was the last and most famous of the Miss Atomic Bomb girls”

- Las Vegas Sun