32 24 August 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

GETTY’S HULTON ARCHIVE

C

anning Town is the
most depressing place
I’ve been to in London,
and I’ve been to the
Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal
play football. It’s a place you pass
through, not go to. There are bus
depots and taxi ranks. Underground
and overground trains. Subways
and bridges. The whole area is
on the move. The walk to my
destination is brutal and bleak.

Lorries pin me to razor-wired walls.

Electricity cables crackle ferociously

above. There are warning signs,

police sirens, guard dogs, dirt-filled

potholes, dust, discarded laughing-

gas canisters, CCTV cameras, tyres,

hub caps and skips. The parrot

in The Durham Arms swears at

passing strangers. I have a clearly

printed ‘how to get here’ sheet of

paper and get lost twice. Standing

among the industrial units of

Raiders

of the lost

archives

In an unassuming building in the

middle of a nondescript part of London,

Getty’s Hulton Archive is heaving with

photographic treasures. Peter Dench

discovers some of them

Toolstation, Edmundson Electrical

and Screwfix, there’s a clue to my

destination. A man smoking a roll-

up cigarette and wearing a brown

apron sips hot tea from a mug. On

the mug it says Getty Images.

Welcome to the Hulton Archive, a

remarkable visual resource of more

than 80 million images contained

within 1,500 individual collections.

At the turn of the 21st century,

Getty Images merged the London-

based Hulton Picture Collection

with Archive Film and Photos,

based in New York, creating Hulton

Archive. The buzzer says press

Patients from

Molesley Cottage

Hospital who were

rescued by police

and soldiers during

flooding in Surrey,

17 August 1968

© CENTRAL PRESS / HULTON ARCHIVE / GETT Y IMAGES

© JOHN DOWNING / HULTON ARCHIVE / GETT Y IMAGES