NO one thought much about sharing a two ring stove with six other families on a crowded stairwell. Nor of mice, cockroaches, or ceilings perilously collapsing in the night through damp. And as for visiting the WC down the yard in the night, well the bucket on the landing was testimony to the fact that you just didn't go there.
None of this life constituted folksy romance in the day to day of thousands of families who endured it in Liverpool a short 40 years ago. They did, however, largely get on with it. And despite the swinging sixties being the most captured decade so far, the camera was not the ubiquitous gadget it is today.
However documentary photography was becoming a form of its own and Nick Hedges, commissioned by the new housing charity Shelter, set off around the country to capture England in all its inglory.
This week hundreds of his shocking images have been published for the first time. The occasion is Shelter's 50th anniversary and to give it some air it is urging Liverpool residents to view the images and see if they can identify family or friends depicted living in these squalid slums in the 1960s.
The search comes ahead of an exhibition of Nick Hedges’ photos in Liverpool next year, as part a series of activities and events in the region to mark the charity’s 50th anniversary.
Shelter would like to hear the stories of the people featured in the photographs - who will now be aged between 50 and 70 – to give them the opportunity to tell their story and revisit the areas they once called home.
Launching the search, photographer Nick Hedges, said: "It would be wonderful to meet the children I photographed all those years ago and for them to be able to tell their stories. I often wonder what happened to them, if they went on to lead happy and healthy lives.
"When I was commissioned by Shelter to take these photographs, I never imagined that decades later they would still have such impact. The poverty and terrible conditions I witnessed shocked me to the core. I hope that all these years later, by reconnecting with some of those I photographed, I am able to hear good news of what happened to the families.”
Nick Hedges, now in his 70s, was commissioned by Shelter in 1968. He spent three years visiting some of England’s poorest and most deprived areas, documenting poor housing conditions and quashing the myth that only people on the streets are homeless.
Shelter’s chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: “I’d encourage anyone who recognises themselves, or family members and friends to get in touch and let us know what happened after they were taken.
“These photographs are a sobering piece of history not only for Shelter, but the nation as a whole, and it’s important to preserve the stories behind them. They show us how far we have come, but also that we must do more for the tens of thousands of families and individuals still desperate for a safe, secure and affordable home."
Here is a selection of the Nick Hedge's startling and stark images. Part II tomorrow.
Elderly woman standing amidst slum clearance site Liverpool 8 1969 10-4
Family in their kitchen, Liverpool 8 1969 13-7a
Family living in one room Liverpool 8 1971 365-37
At the entrance to a Liverpool 8 youth club 1969 
At the doorway of a multilet Liverpool 1969 
A corner conversation 
A Liverpool 8 alleyway encounter 1970
At the opening of a SNAP showhouse Liverpool 8 1969
At meeting to discuss SNAP plans for improvements
Baby propped in window of Liverpool 8 house 1969
Bedroom of a grossly overcrowded house in Liverpool 8 1971 
Family living without running water Liverpool 8 1971 364-29a
Boy standing in front of his bed Liverpool 8 1970
Children in playground of Educational Priority Area school, 1969
Cleaning the pavement outside my house Liverpool 8 1969 
Young mothers in a hostel for unmarried mothers, 1969
Young lad on the corner of a Liverpool 8 street, 1969
Woman sticking anti burglar glass onto back wall of house Liverpool 8 1971
The window of a shop in Granby St
Terminally ill woman living in single room of a multi let house, 1969
Sisters in the interior of their house in Falkner St, 1969
Returning from work across clearence site Liverpool 8 1969 
Family living with gas cut off Liverpool 8 1970 280-22
Mother and daughter in their cellar flat Liverpool 8 1969
Pupil in an EPA primary school Liverpool 8 1969
Ken Dodd with the crowd openiing a SNAP showhouse Liverpool 8
On board the Liverpool 8 double decker playbus 1969
On board the Liverpool 8 double decker playbus 1969
OAP in the kitchen of his house Liverpool 8 1969 10-29
Exhausted pupils in the classroom of an EPA primary school Liverpool 8 1969 
Family living with gas cut off Liverpool 8 1970 280-22
