Getty Images Gallery Shows Londoners At Play

Londoners At Play exhibition at Getty Images Gallery celebrates Londoners with an intimate look at how they spent their leisure time in years gone by

PRESS RELEASE

The Getty Images Gallery has announced its latest summer exhibition which reveals how Londoners spent their leisure time from the late 1800s to the modern day, through a collection of unusual and exceptional archival imagery. Londoners At Play takes a retrospective look at how the leisure activities of today’s Londoners mirror those from the late 1800s and beyond.

The exhibition features 57 images, including a rare glimpse of the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ in 1956 which showcases Sir Malcolm Sergeant conducting the concert in front of an enthusiastic audience. Held each summer in London, the concerts remain as popular as ever today and still attract large numbers of ‘promenaders’ happy to stand rather than sit, creating a unique informal atmosphere.

Other images displayed include a print from a glass plate negative from 1895 that reveals how Londoners enjoyed cycling in the Royal Parks long before the ‘Boris Bikes’ were introduced, and workers taking advantage of a post-World War II bomb site close to St Paul’s Cathedral to have a lunchtime game of cricket.  The image hails back to an era when most workers would take a full hour for lunch giving them time to meet friends, play sport or go for a drink with colleagues – providing a real break in the middle of the working day.

Louise Garczewska, Director, Getty Images Gallery, says: “2012 is a momentous year for the UK and London in particular, so we are extremely excited to present our Londoners At Play exhibition. The exhibition offers the public a rare glimpse into how Londoners of decades past enjoyed their leisure time, and epitomises the fun nature of locals and of a city that is much loved.”

Prints from the exhibition will be available to purchase at the Getty Images Gallery. Please click here to view the imagery that will be on display in the exhibition.

Londoners At Play runs from Wednesday 6 June to Saturday 25 August 2012 and admission is free.

Picture: BIPS/Getty Images