In the late 1950s and early 1960s, photographer Allan Hailstone took a number of trips to France, Spain, Gibraltar, Germany (including Berlin), Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Italy and Denmark to capture the world on the UK’s doorstep with his camera. In these photographs, which include some colour as well as black and white, a rapidly changing way of life in Western Europe is evocatively captured as the Continent moved from the aftermath of the Second World War, and the destruction and austerity caused by the conflict, into the post-war boom. It was the height of the Cold War, and Western Europe was becoming increasingly commercialised and distinct from the eastern half of the continent under the control of the USSR, which would shut the borders with the West and isolate Berlin with the building of the Berlin Wall.

This portrait of a fascinating era in Western Europe will be of interest to all those who remember the 1950s and 1960s or who wish to have a window into that world.