A NEW exhibition that delves into the archives of celebrated photographers that captured the best of Liverpool in its 20th Century heyday is about to go on display.

Metropolis: Capturing Modern Liverpool is on at the National Conservation Centre from Friday through until August 10.

It features more than 60 images from the archives of city photo-graphic practice Stewart Bale Ltd.

The display spans a period of great change for the city, with images taken between the 1930s and 1970s giving a remarkable insight into landmark buildings, cutting edge developments, great events and city life.

The Stewart Bale archives are kept in storage in a warehouse owned by the National Museums Liverpool (NML) which came into the collection in the early 1980s – comprising almost 200,000 negatives spanning seven decades.

More than 60,000 glass negatives and 130,000 film negatives are kept in storage, with hundreds of boxes needing sorting and conservation.

The more delicate film is protected by being kept in a number of chest freezers.

Stewart Bale began as an advertising firm set up by Herbert Stewart Bale, who emigrated to Wirral from Australia at the end of the 19th Century.

It expanded to concentrate full time on photography work thanks to the talents of his son Edward.

With his reputation, the firm was commissioned by some of the largest names in industry both in Liverpool and nationwide to capture revealing moments in Liverpool’s history, including the construction of the Mersey Tunnels and shipbuilding in Cammell Laird, including that of the Mauritania II in 1939.

The family maintained the business for four generations before selling it to another firm in the 1980s.

Nicky Lewis from the Conser-vation Centre said NML had to devise new ways of making sure the negatives were kept safe.

She said: “We have spent a lot of time devising a way of storing them so moisture won’t get into the package. They are wrapped in plastic with two sheets of mount board and wrapped again in an archival box with a humidity strip. When we have come to defrost them they are perfectly dry, so it works very well.”

Anne Gleave, curator of photographic archives at NML said: “It is a massive collection, in terms of span and subject matter it is very broad – to do with architecture, industry, manufacturing, manufac-turing processing, street scenes and ship building.

“We wanted the exhibition to have relevance and a resonance for Capital of Culture year, and that is the sort of image we have focused on – a very positive view of Liverpool.

Admission is free to the National Conservation Centre, on Whitechapel.

vickyanderson