Boys with comic, 1940

Tenement living, 1940

Mersey ferry, 1954

Professor Codman, 1955
Four more photographs from my new book Bert Hardy’s Britain, courtesy of Getty Images. This is the centenary of Bert’s birth and his images brilliantly capture life in the 1940s and 50s. I am not sure which tenement he photographed – possibly the ‘Bullring’ (St Andrew’s Gardens) since it was close to the Adelphi Hotel where he usually stayed. Many will remember Professor Codman, who was still performing (or at least his son was) in Williamson Square well into the 1980s. The son, who also took on the Professor Codman name, came to see me in the late 80s with the idea of publishing a family history. I recall he was thinking of retiring because of the stress of earning a living in an increasingly hostile world. I doubt the book would have been a best-seller but it is a shame it never saw the light of day – another piece of social history lost.
The book is available in local bookshops and on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...;condition=new

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