Girls swinging on a lamp post in North Kensinghton

Girls swinging on a lamp post at a street corner in North Kensington, 1957.

Roger Mayne photographed North Kensington and Southam Street over a period of five years, producing circa 1,400 photographs of local life in the area, from playing children, jiving teenagers and gossiping mothers to newly arrived immigrants. Mayne was fascinated by the vivid working-class community of the area and returned to photograph the neighbourhood and its inhabitants time and again: “I just remember turning the corner into Southam Street and being greeted by this wonderful life”.

At the time, parts of North Kensington, including Southam Street, were earmarked for demolition as part of a slum clearance programme. The area had suffered extensive bomb damage during the war and many people, of which many recent immigrants from the West Indies, lived in poor conditions.