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Paradise Street: The Lost Art of Playing Outside
Evocative images of a time when children were free to play in the streets
Balham, London, circa 1961, Paul Kaye © The Paul Kaye Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

THE images in Paradise Street — the fourth book in Hoxton Mini Press’s Vintage Britain series — span the years from the 1930s through to the late 1970s and are the work of 10 leading photographers.

Balham, London, circa 1961, Paul Kaye © The Paul Kaye Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

They portray children playing in streets from London to Manchester and Belfast to Middlesbrough and, while they are all clearly working class and their games are invariably played out against the backdrop of tenements and terraced slums, they appear to be almost without exception happy and enjoying life to the full — a seeming contradiction you would think — and with hardly an adult to be seen.

Balham, London, circa 1961, Paul Kaye © The Paul Kaye Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library
Balham, London, circa 1961, Paul Kaye © The Paul Kaye Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library
Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, 1966, Shirley Baker © Estate of Shirley Baker / Mary Evans Picture Library
London, 1960–1965, John Gay © John Gay / English Heritage / Mary Evans Picture Library
Manchester, 1963, Shirley Baker © Estate of Shirley Baker / Mary Evans Picture Library
Manchester, 1966, Shirley Baker : Estate of Shirley Baker : Mary Evans Picture Library
Manchester, 1968, Shirley Baker © Estate of Shirley Baker / Mary Evans Picture Library
Milton Street, Belfast, 1969, David Lewis-Hodgson © David Lewis-Hodgson / Mary Evans Picture Library
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