hebig.org/blog
Personal webnode of Haiko Hebig

I wrote about the remarkable Side Photographic Collection before, but now that they have improved their website and made the photos more convenient to find and browse, it is time to mention it again. The Side Collection is a stunning photographic account of life in England's industrial North in the 1970s and 1980ies when steel, coal, coke, fishing, textiles and tabacco all left. To a lesser extent, it also covers the preludium to and the aftermath of that period of time. While it is worth to browse the entire collection (who would want to miss the Sander Collection or Building the Tyne Bridge?), here are some pointers. The rather huge list starts with one of my favorites:

Coke to Coke - "The closure of Derwenthaugh Cokeworks in the aftermath of the Miners' Strike and the nearby opening of the Metro Centre shopping mall, 1986 to 89."

Easington: A Mining Village - "Portrait of Easington Colliery in County Durham immediately prior to the start of the Miners’ Strike of 1984"

Easington: August 1984 - "Documentation of a County Durham colliery village under police siege, at the height of the Miners’ Strike."

Every Breath They Take - "Work supporting the campaign by residents of Hebburn, South Tyneside against Monkton Cokeworks and the environmental pollution it brought to the community, late 1980s."

Seafarers - "The lives of merchant seamen and the seamen's dispute of 1988"

Seacoalers - "The community of seacoal gatherers at Lynemouth, Northumberland, documented in the early 1980"

Shipbuilding on the Tyne - "Portraits and documentation of the shipyards on the Tyne from the early 1980s, when they were first beginning to feel the threat of the Conservative government's industrial policies."

Fishing Industry - "Documentation of the North Shields fishing industry, 1979."

Tees Estuary - "The industrialized mouth of the River Tees, below Middlesbrough, and its small fishing hut communities, documented in the 1970s and early 1980s"

Byker - "Threatened and eventually demolished working class, terraced house community in Newcastle upon Tyne’s East End"

Northumberland Landscapes - "Landscapes exploring rural Northumberland in early 1980s"

River Project - "Photographs of the coal industry and shipbuilding on the River Tyne, 1970s."

Consett - "Photographs from the community life of the County Durham steel town, taken by a local newspaper photographer from 1949 to 1979"

Durham Coalfield - "A landscape survey of the working Durham Coalfield"

Farewell Squalor - "Housing in the Durham Coalfield, 2001 - 2003"

Give my Regards to Elizabeth - "A journey through England in the early 1990s by Peter Bialobrzeski"

Scotswood Road - "The working class terraced community in Newcastle upon Tyne's West End, captured in 1950s and 1960s"

Steel Works - "A documentation of the post-industrial experience of the ex-steelworking town of Consett, 1989"

Wills' Factory - "The last days of a Newcastle upon Tyne cigarette factory, 1986"

Ramar Goodbye - "Documentation of a South West Durham clothing factory taken in the weeks before closure, 1991"