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Shocking Photos Of Slums Families Of Newcastle upon Tyne From 1970s That Reveal The Other Side of Swinging 70s

Photographer Nick Hedges documented the life of poverty-stricken Britain’s slums from 1968 to 1972. He traveled across the country for the housing charity Shelter, taking pictures of families living in run-down homes in Glasgow, Leeds, and Birmingham. He donated 1,000 prints from his Shelter work to the National Media Museum in 1983.

He found families who slept with the lights blazing to keep the rats away, children sleeping on wet floors and mothers cooking over an open fire, sewerage water on the streets, and children playing in the trash. It’s heartbreaking to see that the people had to live under these miserable conditions.

Here below are some heart-wrenching photos of poor families living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from the 1970s.

#1 Street of terraced housing Newcastle upon Tyne 1969

#2 Children playing in a derelict playground, Newcastle upon Tyne 1971

#3 Families wlking across slum clearance site Newcastle upon Tyne 1972

#4 The result of dangerous play, the little boy fell on a rusty nail which punctured his liver, Newcastle 1971

#6 Mother and son reflected in mirror West End Newcastle upon Tyne 1971

#8 Children walking home on a council estate Newcastle upon Tyne 1972

#12 Unemployed son West End Newcastle upon Tyne, 1971

#15 Retired seaman living in a Newcastle multilet 1971

#16 Dangerous play in unsecured derelict houses Newcastle, 1971

#17 Dangerous play in unsecured derelict houses Newcastle, 1971

#23 Family living in slum housing, West End, Newcastle upon Tyne

#26 Family living in slum housing Newcastle’s West End 1971

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Written by Aung Budhh

Husband + Father + librarian + Poet + Traveler + Proud Buddhist. I love you with the breath, the smiles and the tears of all my life.

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7 Comments

  1. Posts like these always make me think of the sheer number of people evicted from their homes to build the Byker Wall. The project was supposed to be the apex of modern artistic design, but thousands of households were forced to pay for it. I am horrified that it remains on the list today.

  2. The situation is a mess. Yes, the photos depict poverty areas, but that’s about it. If the worst things in the actual images are dirty faces and a little boy with a scar allegedly caused by falling on a rusty nail, then the full description above seems almost offensive.

  3. There were terraced houses and street children, but these places had tight-knit communities that looked after each other and took pride in their homes, although they may not have had much money. Even though these pictures are accurate, the narration tells an entirely false story.

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