Photographic memories

A time of political upheaval, bitter strikes and four elections is told in a series of eye-opening pictures at a new exhibition in the city.

Retired press photographer Martin Mayer, who lives in Canterbury, is displaying the images at Garage Coffee @ Fruitworks in Jewry Lane.

The exhibition, which opens tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm and runs until December 6, documents Mr Mayer’s coverage of monumental events in the 1970s and 1980s.

Among them are the Lofthouse colliery disaster, which claimed seven lives in 1973, and the day Margate was taken over by punks and skinheads on Whit Monday in 1986.

Miners at Lofthouse wait for news of their trapped workmates in 1973. Right, Combined Cavalry Old Comrades Association members chatting to their wives after their annual parade through Hyde Park

Pictures: Martin Mayer Punks and a skinhead at Margate in 1986