Dazzling Snapshot: Dive into Daniel Meadows’s Captivating 1970s Bingo Hall Vision Through Photography

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n 1973, at the age of 21, Daniel Meadows transformed a 1948 doubledecker bus into the “Free Photographic Omnibus” and embarked on a 14-month expedition across England, offering complimentary portraits to anyone interested. A Letraset sign placed in the bus’s rear window conveyed the essence of Meadows’s project – capturing the present and the evolving world. Driving over 10,000 miles, Meadows not only took photographs but also recorded audio along the way. He convinced his subjects that their images and thoughts would be preserved for future generations. Miraculously, this hopeful promise was fulfilled when the Bodleian Libraries acquired Meadows’s entire journey archive in 2018. The newly released Book of the Road brings together a selection of his pictures, as well as fragments of reporting from his journals and recordings.

This particular image was captured during Meadows’s stay in the Northumberland town of Haltwhistle. His diary recounts spending a couple of days at the Railway Inn, where he engaged in dart games and shared a few pints with friendly ex-miners. Afterwards, he visited the local bingo hall and took the opportunity to converse with some regular attendees during breaks from the games. Moira Little, one of the regulars, provided him with an overview of Haltwhistle’s history – from its days as a music hall for troops stationed nearby before departing for France in 1914, featuring renowned figures like George Formby and Gracie Fields, to the era of silent films accompanied by a pianist in the corner, and finally, the advent of talkies. In the late 60s, the bingo hall took over. As a dutiful chronicler, Meadows documented these anecdotes “for posterity.” Later on, he returned to the Railway Inn and captured some images at the folk club before retiring to bed in a rather inebriated state around midnight.