David Bailey’s NW1

Great British photographer and celebrity snapper, David Bailey is best known for his black and white mug shots of everyone from David Bowie, to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Kate Moss. However, one thing you might not know about him, is that 35 years ago Bailey turned his lens to Primrose Hill and Camden – producing a photography book that you couldn’t lay your hands on, until now.

A resident for 30 years, Bailey decided to capture this vanishing part of London as it fell into disrepair. He photographed the shuttered cinemas, boarded railway arches, crumbling Victorian facades, dormant car parks and advertising hoardings before they disappeared entirely.

In 1982, when NW1 was first published, it reflected an already vanishing landscape. Viewed now, the images are even more poignant. You can feel Bailey’s love for his home and his sadness at its decay – but the beauty of the pictures held a hope for its revitalisation, which we now know did come to pass.

Extracts from the book, which has long been sold out, will now be reprinted for the first time in 1,000 special limited edition volumes, all hand numbered and hand signed by the artist and all containing a previously unseen photograph from the series.

To coincide with the release of the book, the photos will be exhibited at the HENI Gallery in Soho from 1 December to 31 January 2017 – the first time the photos have ever been shown in public.

Get this book and you’ll genuinely own a piece of local history – and you’ll see Camden in a totally different way.