An illustrated story of how we lived, worked and played in the late Sixties and Seventies

The Nineteen Sixties

Being born in nineteen fifty I was fortunate enough to be part of the changing life in sixties and seventies Britain. Those decades formulated my life as a photographer and I was able to capture some of the events happening around me, and witness the vast changes that were going on. The ‘Swinging Sixties’ remain the defining decade for Britain. In just ten short years, London had transformed from the bleak, conservative city, only just beginning to forget the troubles of the Second World War, into the capital of the world, full of freedom, hope and promise. It was the centre of all excitement, the city where anything and everything was possible.

The sixties began bleak and restricted, but by the end, people were full of hope and optimism for a better future. The first teenage generation free from conscription emerged in Britain. It was a time of change, with the youth leading that change. It was the era of sex, drugs and pop revolution, but also of anti-war protest and inner-city riots. As the era unfolded, what emerged were new cultural forms and a dynamic subculture that celebrated experimentation, modern incarnations of Bohemianism, and the rise of the hippie and other alternative lifestyles. Teenage fashion changed at an astonishing pace and several youth cults came and went. The stylish Mods clashed with the Rockers, who loved motorbikes and leathers, a throwback from the fifties. Mary Quant became famous for popularising the mini skirt which became the epitome of nineteen sixties fashion. Fashion in the decade mirrored many of the social changes of the Sixties. Shifts in law, politics and media reflected a new individualism and growing appetite to live in a more liberal 'permissive society'. People began to stand up for their rights, both civil and at work, and express themselves in new ways. By the end of the decade, hippies wanted to drop out of