When London really was swinging!

For a time, London in the Swinging Sixties became the centre of the universe. Hippies, Mods and Rockers emerged and youth culture became a dominant force of change. Now a stunning collection of photographs offers a snapshot into a time of radical cultural and social upheaval; when the Beatle’s and Rolling Stones battled for chart supremacy, free love was all around and the personal became political. A female rocker clad in leather revs her Triumph racer bike outside the Houses of Parliament 

Make love not war: For an emerging generation of politically conscious youths, global injustices became national talking points. The Vietnam War, seen by many to be as unnecessary as it was brutal, became a focus of political anger, spread through university campuses and on to the streets. Frank Habicht’s photographs of the 1960s in London are evidence of this generation in upheaval

As It Was is Habicht’s treasure-chest of the swinging, groovy, hippie, and psychedelic Sixties in London. It offers an eye-opening contribution to the history of a country that is currently undergoing yet more social transformation. This photobook features his iconic work and many images published for the first time

When the German photographer arrived in London in the 1960s, the pop revolution was still in the starting blocks. Flower power, free love, ‘make love, not war’ – what would become the mottos of a progressive youth culture were still to emerge