British Culture Gallery

Gorbals area of Glasgow; Two young boys walking along a street in 1948

31st January 1948: Two boys walking along a street in the run-down Gorbals area of Glasgow. The Gorbals tenements were built quickly and cheaply in the 1840s, providing housing for Glasgow's burgeoning population of industrial workers. Conditions were appalling; overcrowding was standard and sewage and water facilities inadequate. The tenements housed about 40, 000 people with up to eight family members sharing a single room, 30 residents sharing a toilet and 40 sharing a tap. By the time this photograph was taken 850 tenements had been demolished since 1920. Redevelopment of the area began in the late 1950s and the tenements were replaced with a modern tower block complex in the sixties. Original Publication: Picture Post - 4499 - The Forgotten Gorbals - pub. 1948 (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images)

Dylan Thomas

10th August 1946: Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953), relaxing outside. Original Publication: Picture Post - 4156 - Nest Of Singing Birds - pub. 1946 (Photo by Francis Reiss/Picture Post/Getty Images)

1940 1949, 2 P Thomas Dylan, 3322185, 4156, 74389, Adult, Adults Only, Archival, Arts Culture And Entertainment, Black, Black And White, British Culture, Character, Consumerproduct, Country, Cut, Dylan Thomas Poet, Horizontal, Human Interest, Human Role, Landscape Male Roles, Literature, Males, Marlais, Occupations Personality British Welsh Europe, One Man Only, One Person, P 74389 Pp 4156 Cut Up Rollei Pkt 2, P Thomas Dylan Marlais, People, Pkt, Poet, Portrait, Pp, Reclining, Rollei, Script, Single, Uk, Up, Welsh Culture, White Format

Gin Lane

This print was published as a pair with Beer Street and contrasted the health and productivity benefits of drinking beer with the vice of gin drinking. At the time the prints were made gin was drunk in great quantities in England, and was extremely cheap. Hogarth's nightmarish scene is set in the slum known as the Ruins of St Giles and includes a drunken mother dropping her baby to take a pinch of snuff, the burial of a naked woman, mass brawling, and a man and dog fighting over a bone. Soon after the appearance of Hogarth's prints the Gin Act of 1751 reduced the number of gin shops and greatly increased the tax on importing gin amongst other measures to curtail consumption.
Original Artwork: Engraving by Adland after William Hogarth. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)