The Myth of the North

1948. Blackpool beach on a crowded Bank Holiday Photograph: Popperfoto.com

A boy plays in the street. Jack Hulme spent a lifetime photographing the pit village of Fryston near Castleford in Yorkshire. He was the Fryston barber and local character and became totally accepted as part of the furniture of the village, thus giving him unique access to local people’s lives over forty years Photograph: Jack Hulme/freelance

Blackpool beach Photograph: John Gay/English Heritage.NMR

A man with walking stick on Blackpool beach Photograph: John Gay/English Heritage.NMR

Pub Interior Photograph: John Humphrey Spender 1910-200/Bolton Council, Bolton Museum and Archive Service

Labour Party Miners Photograph: By Permission of the People's History Museum

Liverpool Dockers. Colin Jones began his career as a ballet dancer. The hanging around that went with the job encouraged him to pick up a camera and he became one of the most important British documentary photographers of the 1960s and 1970s, doing many photo essays of life in the North for the Sunday supplements Photograph: Colin Jones/freelance

Childrens Party Photograph: Salford Local History Library