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Dying Walls

Photographer Peter Mitchell’s book Epilogue chronicles the changes and demolition of a large housing complex in Leeds.

“I photograph dying buildings and Quarry Hill was terminal by the time I got to it. Times change and I know there was no point in keeping Quarry Hill Flats. But what it stood for might have been worth keeping”, wrote Peter Mitchell. Part of a 1930 social experiment to house a community of 3000 people, the site was demolished in the 70’s .The stark façades show signs of nature reclaiming its territory, the interiors suggest glimpses of tenants’ lives.

Neilson House

York House

The Kitson House telephone

Interested in writing a chapter of social history that went beyond photographic documentation, in the Quarry Hill project Peter Mitchell combined original documents, archival images, collected testimonies of oral history and his own observations, with the intent of analysing the reasons behind the site’s failure.

Oastler House

Priestley House

Thoresby House

Priestley House

Epilogue, The demise of the Quarry Hill Flats by Peter Mitchell is published by
RRB Photobooks
and available at the price of £55.

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