BT Portrait of a City exhibition in Waterside today

The BT Portrait of a City exhibition, opening today and running until December 13 at St Columb’s Park House, for the first time brings together a collection of photographs submitted by the general public, telling the story of people who have grown up on the East Bank of the Foyle over the generations.

The archive features never before seen images of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the city in 1953, taken by Royal Naval Officer Raymond White, a selection of images from the 1930s provided by the Londonderry Sentinel, like the one above, as well as a number of personal family photo albums.

As a collection the images tell stories of life, love, hardship and everyday events in the community, providing a valuable and compelling insight into the people of the area as Harriet Purkis, curator of the exhibition, explained: “The images tell some amazing personal stories between the 1920’s and the 1950’s, and some of the photographs have never been put on display before. For example Raymond White’s images of the Queen’s visit to the city are particularly interesting.”

She came to the city by train and then travelled up the River Foyle on HMS Rocket, as part of her Coronation visit to Northern Ireland and Raymond White was the only photographer present at Lisahally Docks. He never published the images and they just stayed in an album in his home.

“We also have a selection of photographs from the Fountain and Glen Estates areas of Derry/ Londonderry provided by Harold and Sarah Burton from their family album. They depict family scenes from the first half of the Twentieth Century. And we have more family photos documenting life in Violet Street provided by Dermot O’Doherty.

“I think what is so unique about the exhibition is that it doesn’t feature pictures of local streets and buildings, these images focus on the people of the time, and some of them are very relaxed and very humorous.”

Local sporting moments, agricultural shows and even a trip with the local girl guides all feature in the exhibition as well as some poignant family pictures. And the archive continues to grow as the Portrait of a City project continues to add to its collection. Anyone with old pictures lying at home can bring them along to the Rath Mor Centre in Creggan, and have their images included in the digital collection, as well as getting a free digitized copy to take home.

The exhibition will officially launch between 12noon-2pm in St Columb’s Park House, featuring a short film made up of archive footage also gathered together from private collections, and it will run until December 13. To find out more about the BT Portrait of a City project go to www.btportraitofacity.com