Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now
3 February  –  23 April 2006
Making History
Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now
Section 2: Looking at Britain
 
Roger Mayne b. 1929
Girl on the steps, St Stephen's Gardens, Westbourne Park 1957
Roger Mayne, Girl on the steps, St Stephen's Gardens, Westbourne Park 1957 © Roger Mayne / Museum of London
© Roger Mayne / Museum of London

Roger Mayne spent five years, 1956-61, photographing Southam Street in west London. Colin MacInnes' contemporary novel Absolute Beginners 1959 was in part inspired by Mayne's photographs, the central character being a teenage photographer. The appearance of quiffed hairstyles, leather jackets and cocksure attitude reflects the era's burgeoning youth culture. Southam Street was declared unfit for habitation in 1963 and was demolished in 1969. The photographs document a moment before the theatre of the street was destroyed and its inhabitants uprooted and re-housed in modern estates and tower blocks. Other works shown here represent the City of London, Glagow and Dublin, but always focused on the street.