Birmingham Past and Present: In My Father's Footsteps

In the 1950s and 60s, aware of what was about to happen to Birmingham, Dennis Norton took his camera and went to work.

Photographing buildings along the route of the forthcoming inner ring road, around New Street station and in other areas of the city due for redevelopment, he captured a Birmingham that is now long gone - but fondly remembered by many.

Almost half a century later, Mark Norton discovered these photographs, taken by the father he never knew: Dennis died just six weeks before his son was born.

Mark set about retracing his father's footsteps, to discover what has been lost and to compare past with present.

In the process, he gained a respect for Birmingham that had been missing when he grew up amid the concrete and dereliction, subways and urban motorways of the 1970s.

Mark also feels that the project has formed a link with his father that up until now has been missing.

Anyone who grew up in post-war Birmingham, especially in the 1950s and '60s, will be fascinated by these recently rediscovered photographs; anyone who has only recently moved to the city will be astonished to see the changes that have taken place.