# Photographing the Calder Valley: or social history at the 'mouth of hell'

Photographing the Calder Valley: or social history at the 'mouth of hell' at Birkbeck College, Thursday 19 November 2026, 18:00.

- Venue: Birkbeck College, WC1E 7HX London
- With: Matthew Hilton, Aditya Chakrabortty
- Go to page: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event/66632/photographing-the-calder-valley-or-social-history-at-the-mouth-of-hell

A public lecture asking how historians can write the social history of small post-industrial towns like Halifax in the Calder Valley. Matthew Hilton, Professor of Social History at Queen Mary University of London, uses photographs by Bill Brandt, John Bulmer, Martin Parr, Nick Danziger and local photographer Alice Longstaff to look beneath the smog of these 'Lowryscapes'. The lecture is followed by a comment from Guardian senior economics commentator Aditya Chakrabortty and is facilitated by the Raphael Samuel History Centre.

## Dates

- Thursday 19 November 18:00 — Birkbeck College

Written by a model, sources: [bbk.ac.uk](https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event/66632/photographing-the-calder-valley-or-social-history-at-the-mouth-of-hell)

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