Here’s what happened to the British children in heartbreaking 60s slum photos which shocked the world
Shocking photos revealed a childhood of sharing beds, hunger and hard work for these 60's kids. We find out what happened to them 50 years on
We’re used to thinking of the swinging 60s as carefree time. The Beatles, Twiggy and happy shoppers on newly-fashionable Carnaby Street are the images that come to mind. But these shocking images captured another side to story.
Instead of mini-skirts and mods, the photos taken by photographer Nick Hedges between 1968 and 1972 for housing charity Shelter, show the poverty, squalor and hideous overcrowding suffered by around three million people in inner cities across the UK.
This week a Channel 5 documentary tracks down some of the people featured in the grim portraits, and finds out where they are now. At the time the photos helped to highlight a huge problem with housing in this country and kickstarted some positive changes – but can the same be said for the people in the pictures?
Back in 1969, the Rump family were living in a damp basement flat in Whitechapel East London, so grim were the conditions that photographer Hedges commented: “The flat really was a hole, a cave, oppressive and restrictive to both mind and body.”
Claire Evans, 53, and brother Michael Rump, 58, lived there with their parents and four other siblings and the memories aren’t good. Sobbing, Claire remembers: “When you look at it now, you think, was that really us? I can’t understand why anybody would want to bring kids to a place like that.”
Sleeping three to a bed with her siblings to keep warm, Claire recalls having a dummy until the age of six, and she suspects it was to stop her feeling hungry, because of the lack of food.
Though the pictures tell a grim story, there is a happy ending. Shelter intervened in the family’s life after the photos were taken, and they ended up making a life changing relocation to Peterborough.
Claire, who now works in a bookies in Birmingham, said: “Life tends to make you hard, doesn’t it? I think the bonds were close because we had nothing but each other.
“We ended up with a house and a garden but nobody was better off than we were because we knew where we’d come from.”
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For brother Michael, the memories are still raw. Now living in Dagenham, East London and working as a forklift driver, his memories are painful: “Obviously I am still angry about it. I used to come home from school and for dinner would be a tin of rice or something.
“It brings back bad memories, but good ones too. I was over the moon when I got my first wage as I could afford things I had to steal before.”
In Bradford the Newlove family of six siblings slept in one room, with the youngest using a drawer as a bed.
Colin Newlove remembered: “I hated school. I hated living there. I used to have anger problems, causing trouble, getting into fights and nicking stuff.
“But as I got older I realised it wasn’t right. I got myself an apprenticeship, joined the Army and just worked.
“I am driven because I don’t want to go back to what I had… nothing.”
While Colin spent his life working his way out of the slums, for some of his siblings life hasn’t changed much. One brother moved to Merseyside while two of his sisters stayed in Bradford but Colin added: “They’re still living in the same conditions – in council properties that are run-down.”
While slums are a thing of the past, other housing problems have emerged to take their place, warns Shelter. This Christmas more than 120,000 children in Britain will wake up in temporary accommodation.
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “We’ve made progress but not enough has changed.
“We are once again facing a housing crisis and we must all pull together to fix it.”
He added: “In 50 years’ time we cannot be repeating this same, heart-breaking story.”
Slum Britain: 50 Years airs on Channel 5 on Tuesday December 6 at 10 pm.