Greenwich: Images of England

Greenwich and Woolwich have long been associated with the great national monuments. Since the seventeenth century Greenwich has been associated with ‘time’. The time-ball at the Old Royal Observatory still falls daily at one o'clock, just as it has done since 1833.

But ‘time’ also means change. This fascinating collection of over 250 photographs shows that many changes which the area underwent between 1858 and the 1970s. It is not a definitive history of the London Borough of Greenwich, its monuments and its institiutions, but a vividy authentic ‘taste’ of the life and times of the people of a region which was, until 1889, still part of Kent.

Farms, rural villiages, market gardens, open countryside, brickfields, heavy industry, bustiling High Streets, the sounds of ships’ sirens, from the River Thames and of guns being tested at Woolwich Arsenal were all part of everyday social and industrial life for the ordinary people that the images in this selection represent. Throughout periods of immense change - the amalgamation of separate communities into the metropolis, the 1920s and ‘30s, the heavy bombing of the Second World War, re-development - and the rigours of modern city life, the people of the Borough are shown at work and at play. This extraordinary portrayal of a time gone by recreaes, revelas and perhaps reminds a few of a time that has now disappeared forever.