Incredible black and white pictures show the squalor and misery of life in Slum Britain in the 1960s
In the sixties, an era remembered for its social progress, photographer Nick Hedges worked with housing charity, Shelter, to capture the austere life in Britain's slums
THESE are the pictures that shocked the nation into action over the housing crisis and now, 50 years on, a housing charity has tracked down some of the people in the iconic photos.
In the sixties, an era remembered for its social progress, photographer Nick Hedges worked with housing charity, Shelter, to capture the austere life in Britain's slums.
Hedges' work in 1968, alongside Ken Loach's 1966 drama-documentary Cathy Come Home, spurred MPs into action over the dire housing conditions in the countries inner cities.
Now, 50 years on, some of the subjects in Hedges' photos have been found.
After the Observer published a a nationwide to find the people in the pictures was launched.
Their stories will be told in a Channel 5 documentary next week, which looks at the effects growing up in poor housing can have on people then and now.
Among the people photographed was Claire Evans, who lived with her parents and five siblings in a tiny, damp basement flat in Whitechapel, London.
Claire, who was born Shirley Rump but changed her named when she married, she remembers darkness and the hunger.
She said: "Even the weeds wouldn’t grow it was that dark. And we were always hungry."
She had a dummy until she was six and slept in the same bed with two of her siblings because her family could not afford heating in the flat.
Her brother, Pete, had a hole in his heart but Shelter's intervention helped to relocate the family to Peterborough.
Claire told of how she did not think her brother would have survived in the conditions she was used to.
She added: "The new house had a garden with an apple and a pear tree. There was space. It was like someone winning the lottery nowadays."
Today she lives in Birmingham but has little interest in returning to the place in London where she grew up.
Another subject of Hedges' photography is the Newlove family, from Bradford.
Colin was one of six children who all slept in the same room, the youngest in a drawer.
His father bred dogs and often puppies slept in the drawers below.
He left home at 17 to join the army because his father had told him his dream career of becoming a chef was "only for queers", but he admits it was a mistake and he was just "trying to prove something".
But growing up in poverty has left its mark on Colin.
He said: "I’m a bit of a loner. I have friends who maybe I text once a year. I personally feel like I never fit in."
Two of Colin's sisters still live in council housing in Bradford.
Hedges also photographed the Pryde family at their house in Moss Side, Manchester.
Paul had been a coal miner in Scotland but the family moved south when mining went into decline.
There was no hot water and the eight children were forced to wash in the kitchen sink.
His son recalled the first moment he was made to feel different - when a teacher said to him: "Go away you smelly little boy."
The starting point of the film is a retrospective look at people who lived in the slums of the 1960s.
In parallel, the documentary takes a contemporary and sensitive look at the lives of those living through the housing crisis of today and asks whether we have truly understood the issues first brought to light nearly half a century ago.
The documentary promises an emotional and compelling insight into the impact of England's housing crisis on families and individuals over the past century.
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Guy Davies, Channel 5’s commissioning editor factual, said: "This extraordinary project and collaboration with Shelter explores lives so often forgotten.
"The award-winning editorial team are making a definitive statement on our continuing housing crisis and its link to hardship in this important anniversary year for Shelter."
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: "Nick’s photographs of the sixties slums are a sobering piece of history not only for Shelter, but the nation as a whole.
"It’s important to explore the stories of the people behind the pictures, but also of the many more homeless families who struggle today.
"The sad truth is that fifty years after these photos were taken, our country is once again at the mercy of a housing crisis – it may not be as visible as the slums, but it’s the very ordinariness of the crisis now that’s so shocking.
"Every day we see the heart-breaking toll bad housing takes on people’s well-being and the way it breaks up families and communities.
"Shelter will continue to fight for everyone to have a safe, secure and affordable place to call home and support those going through the trauma of homelessness, for as long as we are needed. But I sincerely hope we won’t still need to be here in another fifty years."
Slum Britain: 50 Years On will air on Channel 5 at 10pm on December 6.
