Stunning Monochrome Photographs Capturing Life in London during the 1950s

   
Casparus Bernardus Oorthuys (1 November 1908 – 22 July 1975), known as Cas Oorthuys, was a Dutch photographer and designer. Oorthuys first took up photography after he joined the free-thinking Dutch Association of Abstinent Students in the architecture department of the Haarlem MTS.
 
In 1936, Oorthuys became permanent photographer at De Arbeiderspers. He produced photography and graphics for communist and anti-fascist organizations; and in the tradition of "workers' photography" he documented poverty, police violence, the unemployed, homeless people and evictions for magazines, book illustrations and book covers and exhibitions.
 
During the German Occupation, Oorthuys became involved in the Personal Identification Centre established in 1942 and made passport photos for fake ID cards. In May 1944, Oorthuys was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned in camp Amersfoort. Unexpectedly, he was released again in August. On release Oorthuys connected with De Ondergedoken Camera and documented the activities of the German occupiers, and also the awful Hongerwinter, the Dutch famine of 1944–45. During the postwar recovery he recorded the Nuremberg war crimes trials and the rebuilding of his homeland.
 
Take a look at London in the 1950s through these 23 stunning black and white photographs taken by Oorthuys:

 
Oxford Street

 

 
Regent Street

 

 
Lower Regent Street

 

 
Middle Temple Lane

 

 
An orderly queue for the number 8 bus at London Bridge Station

 

 
Northern Line

 

Bull and Mouth, Aldersgate

 

Blowing soap bubbles

 

High Holborn

 

Lombard Street

 

Piccadilly Circus

 

Pensioners' rally at Trafalgar Square

 

Outside the Ritz, Piccadilly

 

George Tippins newspaper seller, Piccadilly

 

Fleet Street

 

Berwick Street market

 

Caledonian Market

 

Bank of England

 

Shop in Rupert Street

 

St Paul's Cathedral

 

Prince of Wales Theatre

 

Trafalgar Square

 

 
Trafalgar Square at night


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