Mick Jagger With His Aston Martin DB6 in London, 1966

In the early summer of 1966, Mick Jagger celebrated his new wealth by splashing out an estimated £5,000 on a brand new Aston Martin DB6, at that time the marque’s latest, state-of-the-art tourer. (It had been launched the previous autumn.) He was the lead singer of The Rolling Stones, who at that point were second only to The Beatles in terms of fame and international success. In outrage and rebelliousness, they were without peer.

The Rolling Stones had begun by covering American R&B and blues songs, but that had a limited shelf life. Pushed by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, they began to write their own material and there then ensued an extraordinary sequence of self-penned hits. Between spring 1965 and early summer 1966, the Stones had four number one hits and a number two in the UK. In the US they had six top tens and three number ones. All were written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

By spring 1966, the money was beginning to flow in. Still only 22, Mick Jagger was becoming very rich. Behind the rebellious image, he was also, at the same time, becoming a key member of the new pop aristocracy.

These shots were taken in by Gered Mankowitz in June 1966 in a London mews, just off Baker Street: Jagger had recently moved into a flat in Harley House, near the top end of Harley Street, between Marylebone Road and Regent’s Park. The idea was to show The Rolling Stones “at home,” a then standard fan magazine trope. Still only a teenager himself at the time, Gered was the closest photographer to the group. He remembers that “Mick was in an excellent mood all day. We hung out and took a load of silly images of him generally taking the mickey out of the ‘at home’ format.”

See more»

Blondie Photographed by Ian Dickson on Oxford Street, London, 1977

In May 1977, Blondie arrived in the UK for their first-ever British tour, supporting Television. Renowned music photographer Ian Dickson captured the band during a casual promotional stroll down London’s busy Oxford Street. Rather than a staged studio session, Dickson captured candid, gritty street-level portraits that perfectly matched the band’s burgeoning punk and new wave energy.

During the walk, the band popped into a traditional London shoe shop. Dickson captured this striking, intense portrait of Debbie Harry resting in a chair, framed perfectly by stacks of shoe boxes. Her iconic platinum hair and cool composure contrast sharply with the mundane, everyday retail backdrop. He also photographed the band members gathering outside the storefronts. These images capture the raw, effortless style of the era, just as Blondie was on the cusp of exploding into global superstethers.

When these photos were taken, Blondie was still an underground phenomenon in the UK. Within a year of this promotional tour, their breakout album Parallel Lines would propel them to the top of the British charts, making moments like a quiet shoe-shopping trip on Oxford Street a thing of the past.

Blitz Canteen: Photos Show Women of the Women’s Voluntary Service Running a Mobile Canteen in London During WWII

During WWII’s Blitz (1940–1941), “Blitz Canteen” typically refers to the mobile canteens operated by the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) in bombed areas of London. These were not a single fixed location but a network of mobile units, often adapted vans or cars with trailers, that provided essential refreshments, food, and comfort to civilians, rescue workers, firefighters, and others amid the devastation.

They delivered hot tea, buns, pies, sandwiches, and sometimes cigarettes or other small comforts to shelterers emerging from the night’s bombings, rubble-clearing crews (like the Pioneer Corps or Royal Engineers), bombed-out residents, and emergency services. Tea was a huge morale booster, often called Britain’s “secret weapon,” and the canteens operated at cost with no profit.

Volunteers started shifts as early as 2:30 a.m. to catch people heading to work after sheltering. They worked in dangerous conditions near bomb sites, during or right after raids, often under blackout rules with torches and basic equipment like primus stoves and Thermos urns.

The WVS (founded 1938) had around a million members by the end of 1941. Many were women from various social backgrounds, including “society girls.” They also helped with evacuations, clothing distribution, and other civil defense work. Mobile canteens were funded through donations and fundraising.

See more»

London Street Scenes in the Early 1960s Through Captivating Vintage Photos

The early 1960s marked a pivotal moment in London’s history: a time of transition when the city was slowly shaking off the last remnants of postwar austerity and beginning to embrace a new spirit of youth, modernity, and creativity.

These captivating vintage photos offer a rich and atmospheric journey through the streets of London during this fascinating period. From the bustling markets of Soho and the elegant avenues of the West End to the working-class neighborhoods of the East End, the images capture everyday life, fashion, architecture, and the subtle social changes that would soon explode into the full Swinging Sixties.

London street scenes, 1960

London street scenes, 1960

London street scenes, 1960

London trolleybus, November 1960

London, 1960

See more»

Grave Stones Surrounding the Hardy Tree in St. Pancras Old Church, London

The Hardy Tree was a famous ash tree in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church in London, renowned for the tightly packed layers of Victorian gravestones encircling its base. The landmark holds a deep connection to English literature, as the arrangement of headstones is traditionally attributed to the young Thomas Hardy, long before he found fame as the author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. For more than a century, it stood as a powerful visual symbol of life and death, but the historic tree collapsed in late December 2022 after being weakened by a parasitic fungus and winter storms.

In the mid-1860s, London was undergoing massive industrial expansion. The Midland Railway Company was building its new line into what would become St Pancras Station. However, the planned tracks cut directly through the ancient burial ground of St Pancras Old Church.

Because the churchyard had been heavily used for centuries, thousands of graves had to be exhumed and moved to clear the path for the railway.

The sensitive and grim job of supervising the exhumations was contracted to the architectural firm of Arthur Blomfield. Blomfield handed the daily management of the project over to his young assistant, Thomas Hardy, who worked at the site between 1865 and 1866. Hardy’s responsibility was to ensure that the human remains were respectfully exhumed and moved to the new St Pancras Cemetery.

According to London folklore, once the bodies were reinterred, hundreds of displaced headstones were left behind. Rather than letting them be destroyed, Hardy allegedly ordered them to be stacked in a neat, circular, overlapping pattern around an ash tree in a quiet corner of the yard where the railway would not disturb them. Over the subsequent decades, the tree grew massively, its thick roots curling between and swallowing up the stones, making it look as though nature was reclaiming the forgotten dead.

See more»

London in the 1950s Through Hardwicke Knight’s Lens

Post-war London in the 1950s was a city of stark contrasts, transitioning from the gray austerity of the 1940s to the vibrant dawn of a new Elizabethan era. The decade began with the city still scarred by the Blitz, characterized by foggy “pea-souper” smogs and the lingering presence of ration books.

However, the 1951 Festival of Britain acted as a “tonic for the nation,” injecting a sense of modernism and colorful optimism into the South Bank. As the years progressed, the soot-stained Victorian architecture began to share the skyline with the first flickers of glass-and-steel reconstruction, signaling a city reinventing itself.

The atmosphere of 1950s London was defined by the rhythmic clatter of red double-decker RT-type buses and the sight of gentlemen in bowler hats juxtaposed with the emerging “Teddy Boy” subculture in South London. It was a time of traditional tea rooms and smoky jazz clubs in Soho, where the old-world colonial influence met a new wave of Commonwealth immigration, forever enriching the city’s cultural fabric.

These fascinating photos were taken by Hardwicke Knight, showcasing the vibrant and evolving street scenes of London in the 1950s.

Drink stand, London

431 bus to Sevenoaks, Five Bells pub on the left, Chelsfield, South East London

Alan Ladd in ‘Desert Legion’, Piccadilly Circus, London

Albert Embankment, London

Barnet, London, showing gas holder

See more»

London Streets in the 1980s: A Decade of Grit and Glamour

London in the 1980s was a city of striking contrasts, where crumbling Victorian facades met the neon-lit energy of a new era.

The streets were a vibrant stage for self-expression, echoing with the sounds of post-punk, new wave, and the early beats of club culture. From the defiant Mohawks and leather jackets of Camden Town to the power suits and sleek red buses cruising through the City, the visual landscape was constantly shifting.

It was a decade marked by both social unrest and a creative explosion, where the grit of the urban environment served as a backdrop for the “New Romantic” fashion movement. These streets weren’t just transit routes, they were the living, breathing heart of a cultural revolution that redefined the spirit of the British capital forever.

These fascinating photos, captured by Peter Marshall, offer a glimpse into London streets during the first half of the 1980s.

Bus, Piccadilly, Westminster, 1980

Battersea High St, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1980

Closed Saturday, Open Sunday, Shop Door, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1980

Mattresses, Brockley, Lambeth, 1980

Silver Belle Flour, St Mary's, Old Swan Wharf, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1980

See more»

Generation X Photographed by Adrian Boot in West London, 1982

Adrian Boot is one of the most significant photographers of the British punk and reggae era. His work with Generation X (the band featuring a young Billy Idol) is highly regarded for capturing the band’s transition from the raw punk scene of 1976 to their more polished “New Wave” success in the early 1980s.

One of his most referenced sets is a professional photosession taken on location in West London in 1982. By this time, the band’s image had shifted; these photos often feature Billy Idol and Tony James with a more stylized, “rock star” look, utilizing the urban, industrial backdrop of West London—an area Boot knew well from his frequent work with The Clash and The Damned.

See more»

London Underground Train Guards at Night in the 1960s

In the 1960s, a late-night journey on London’s Central Line carried with it a sense of quiet reassurance, thanks to the uniformed guard stationed in the last carriage. His presence was steady but unobtrusive, a silent guardian watching over the scattered passengers who rode the Underground after hours. For weary workers finishing long shifts, young revelers heading home from the city, or solitary travelers passing through the dim tunnels, that watchful figure offered a comfort that words rarely expressed. In the stillness between stations, his presence reminded people that they were not entirely alone.

Over time, these guards became woven into the familiar fabric of daily travel. Regular commuters knew the sight of the cap, the uniform, the steady stance—figures as much a part of the experience as the screech of brakes or the sway of the carriages. They were not there to intrude but to embody a sense of order, safety, and humanity within a transport system that could often feel cold and mechanical. In the stretches of darkness beneath the city, their simple duty carried great weight: they were the human element in an otherwise impersonal journey, offering protection through presence alone.

By the 1990s, however, the era of the guards came to an end. Cost-cutting measures, new technology, and shifting priorities led to their removal, leaving automated announcements and CCTV to fill the void. The change was practical, even inevitable in the march of modernization, but it also marked the quiet loss of something intangible. The Underground still ran, the trains still carried Londoners through the night, yet the human reassurance was gone, the figure who stood in the shadows, ensuring safe passage, had vanished into memory, leaving behind only echoes of a time when safety had a face.

(Photos via SQUAREWHEELS.org.uk)

Glamorous Portrait of Lilian Rose Goldstein, a Member of the Forty Elephants

This glamorous portrait is believed to be Lilian Rose Goldstein, the Bobbed-Haired Bandit. Taken in about 1926 and found among one of the Forty Elephants, Ada Johnston’s possessions when she died, it has the stylized look of film actress Louise Brooks, who popularized the bob haircut.

Goldstein was a young, middle class woman from Wembley who acted as the getaway driver for John ‘Ruby Sparks’ a notorious smash-and-grab burglar in the 1920s. She was inventive and it has her idea that he “take bulldog paperclips with him to hold the cuts on his hands and arms together.”