Photographs of Broughton lost Greenside district in the 1950s have appeared online for the first time.
William Ewing Smith took the pictures whilst living in the area as a Theology student and assistant at the Greenside Mission. At this time, the densely packed community of 571 people lived in squalid and poorly ventilated conditions which the Medical Officer considered unfit for human habitation. Victorian medical officers and journalists had earlier likened the area unfavourably to 'Darkest Africa'.
However, such accounts captured only half the story. As mentioned in Breaking news (26.1.12), Greenside was also a vibrant community in which a wide variety of cheerful and enterprising people lived, often for several generations.
Smith's images include some delightful shots of the Little Demons Skiffle Group, Greenside Youth Club at play and prayer, and the now long vanished smokey streetscapes of Queen's Place and Nottingham Place.
They appear, thanks to some smart detective work by City Libraries staff and the permission of Smith's family, at: www.capitalcollections.org.uk