Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-09-19)

66 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

Peter Dench is a photographer, writer, curator and presenter based in London. He is one of the co-curators of Photo North in Harrogate and has been exhibited dozens of times. He has published a

number of books including The Dench Dozen: Great Britons of Photography Vol 1; Dench Does Dallas; The British Abroad; A&E: Alcohol & England and England Uncensored. Visit peterdench.com

I

was once anonymously sent a copy

of the book, Closing Time: The Lost

Pubs of Liverpool, photographed by

Kevin Casey. Who would be so cruel

to do that? What could I have done to

offend someone so acutely? The pubs are

boarded up and broken down, every turned

page a tombstone, each pub an Amityville

Horror, a mausoleum of thirsty souls.

The pub was the happy destination of

beer being brewed opposite my childhood

home. The smell of hops has me yanked

back to my youth and the pubs that

played a crucial part in shaping how I see

and feel about the world. The Springhead

and its golden garden of bees and

buttercups. The Railway Tavern, where

motorcycle gangs lounged on the

pavement smoking cigarettes, leather

jackets crackling in the heat. A celebratory

Sunday roast at The White Hart, after

another headed goal secured the pub

football team victory. There was a lot of

sunshine in the late 1970s and 1980s and

the pub was celestial.

Pubs are consistently being culled as

they bounce from crisis to crisis, decade

after decade: recession, the smoking ban

and the proliferation of cheap supermarket

alcohol have all taken their toll, snatching

away some of the nation’s favourite and

iconic watering holes. According to data

from the Offi ce for National Statistics,

nearly a quarter of UK pubs closed between

2008 and 2018.

The Golden Lion, from the book Early

Sunday Morning, photographed by Peter

Mitchell, is one of around 100 colour

photographs of the city of Leeds taken in

the 1970s and 1980s. While the south coast

seaside town of my teens was thriving,

large parts of Leeds were being dismantled.

Mitchell documented them in his direct

and singular style: book shops, record

shops, cafes, factories, terraced housing and

the pub – stoic and mute, blinded by

wooden boards, a warning of what once

was and what was to come.

I saved a fortune during the pandemic

lockdown. As the pubs prepared to reopen

Final Analysis

PeterDenchconsiders...

The GoldenLionbyPeterMitchell

Photo Critique

on Super Saturday, 4 July, I was unsure

whether I wanted to return. Then I

remembered Mitchell’s photograph and

decided to do my bit to revive the industry

and help to resurrect my local boozer. It’s

not the same, like a dear friend who’s

suffered a stroke, something is missing,

perhaps gone forever – the bubbles were

less bubbly, the bar less bright.

I fi rst politically associated the rainbow

with Greenpeace, then gay rights,

additionally now the NHS and associated

healthcare workers. The pub too has

transitioned, from a symbol of community

to hardship and dismantled lives. A

consequence of the lockdown where I live,

The Queens, the Kings Head and The Old

Dairy pubs remain shuttered amid rumours

they may never reopen. It’s time to put

emotions aside, pick up the camera

andchannelthatinnerMitchell.

‘Mitchell documented them in his direct and singular

style: the pub stoic and mute, blinded by wooden boards’

Early Sunday Morning is published by RRB Photobooks.

Edit and sequence by John Myers. £50