Old Pictures of the British at Work and Play in the 1930s

   
 
Edwin Smith (1912 – 1971) was an English photographer. He is best known for his distinctive vignettes of English gardens, landscapes, and architecture. But some of his finest work is portraiture.

 
Workers sitting on steps outside the Guildhall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
 
St. James Street Station, Walthamstow, London

 
A miner's home, Scotswood on Tyne

 
Mannequin on a street barrow, London

 
Herring girls gutting fish on the quayside, North Shields

 
Six clowns (Pinder in the centre) from Hagenbeck's Circus, Olympia, London

 
Circus riders

Fairground workers constructing Gray's roundabout, Hampstead, London

 
Children playing in the street outside a shop, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear

 
People on the beach at South Shields, Tyne and Wear

 
Workers at the National Aircraft Factory, Croydon, London

 
Boys at Church Farm School, East Barnet, London

 
Helter skelter and roundabout at a London fairground

 
Clowns performing at Bertram Mills Circus, Olympia, London

 
Portrait of an immigrant

 
Portrait of a rural worker

 
Shepherd Poole, shepherd to Mr. S Holloway of Norton-sub-Hambdon, Somerset

 
Portrait of seated woman

 
Coco the Clown at Olympia, London

 
Circus horses and trainer

 
Fishermen and their boats on a beach

Quayside market on Sunday morning, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Fashion shot

Fairground, Mitcham, London

 
Fan dancer, Mitcham Fair, London

 
Fashion shot taken at 72 Brook Street, London

(Photos © Edwin Smith / RIBA Library Photographs Collection, via Mashable/ Retronaut)